


Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber & Red Fox

by KinuNishimura



Category: Rockman.EXE | Mega Man Battle Network
Genre: (but like it's Megaman Battle Network come on), Canon - Video Game, Canon Compliant, College, F/F, Female Protagonist, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, Video Game Mechanics, this is a massive departure from my usual fandoms but nobody can stop me, whole series spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 73,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25046053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KinuNishimura/pseuds/KinuNishimura
Summary: Eight years after the Cybeast Incident in Cyber City, a duo of Netopian Netbattlers, Paige Markham and Vespa.EXE, come to Electopia for college and find themselves wrapped up in a series of events dealing with the seeming revival of the mafia group "Vile Numbers," defeated by Lan Hikari and Megaman some years ago. As the situation advances, questions are risen about the nature of humans and NetNavis—what really is the difference between their souls? And, well, can someone other than the Hikari Bros. save the day for once? They'll try their best, at least.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	1. Prologue ~ The Girl That Didn't Leave

_**Date: January 8, 20XX-4** _

**_Location: NetMafia “Vile Numbers” Main Headquarters_ **

Against a crackling fire, in silhouette, sat the mastermind. Though he was roughly the size of a human, his purple-hued ears marked him as nothing of the sort, and he covered himself in a protective cloak of his black, metallic wings. His clawed hand clapped shut his book, and the room’s simulated acoustics caused the sound to echo. “Bar _barians_ ,” this criminal declared, “absolutely disgraceful.”

“Huh?” One of the invaders said.

“To think that the youth of today are such that they would disrupt my reading time, and with such foolish notions as ‘justice’! _**What—**_ ”

Standing from his chair, the boots he wore over his clawed feet making an obvious sound, the gust of wind from Devilbat Schilt’s wings blew his prized chair out of range of his imminent sortie. Throwing one wing wide to grasp at some sort of theatrics, he continued, “—are the young generations being taught these days?!”

An unmistakable blue-armored young man lowered his MegaBuster and, with a narrowed look, said, “Well, at least we’re not criminals.”

“Oh, you _Electopians_ ,” Schilt said, rolling his glaring red eyes from beneath the blindfold-like visor that covered them. “An unfailing bastion of light, not unlike that _doctor_ who you all enjoy puffing up as though he were the sole inventor of our Net society. I can’t _stand_ it!”

With another, astonishingly dramatic toss that fluttered his wings once again with a crackle of static electricity, Schilt hurled his book back into its shelf with pinpoint accuracy (this was actually a coded function of the book object within these walls, but it looked cool.) “I had hoped that should some foolish fighter come in here attempting to interrupt my solitude, it might at least be someone with class, a noble with whom I might break bread and discuss the finer things in life.”

There was a moment of silence, before Lan Hikari, savior of the world roughly nine point twenty-four times over now, mumbled out, “Um, Megaman?”

“Yeah?” Megaman, his erstwhile NetNavi companion and twin brother, looked up toward an invisible connection to ask.

“What is this guy talking about?” Lan asked, whispering conspiratorially as though Schilt and his own operator, the nefarious gangster Menart (who was currently standing approximately twenty feet away from Lan in the human world, albeit behind a glass wall,) couldn’t hear him perfectly well. “Is he okay?”

With a soft sigh, Megaman closed his eyes and responded, “He’s being racist, Lan.”

“So he’s not okay,” Lan said.

“ _And_ insulting Grandpa,” Megaman continued.

“Wow! That’s even worse!” Lan said, and though Megaman couldn’t see him at the moment, it was certain Lan was wide-eyed with something vaguely approaching outrage. “Your Navi seems like a real jerk!”

“What are your subordinates _doing_ ,” Schilt called out to his own operator, “that they’ve even reached this point?”

“Beats me,” Menart said, audibly shrugging. “Wolff’s off roping his Navi in again, Scuttler’s did a runner, the other ones fell over. We might be screwed.”

With a heavy sigh, Schilt’s ears twitched. “Incompetent man. Need I fight all of your battles for you? Against mere _babes_? These wet-behind-the-ears street rats shan’t even make a notch on my belt! Ready your _chips_ , Menart, lest all my efforts go to waste.”

“If you say so, Schilt,” Menart said with another audible shrug.

“So, do you think this guy is the actual last boss this time?” Lan asked, and then turned his attention to Schilt. “You don’t have like, a big monster virus waiting in the back there or something?”

“Wha—” Schilt nearly sputtered, but caught himself. “What cheek! You must not know who you’re dealing with. I am the _Wailing Gentleman_ , Devilbat Schilt! Children quake in fear of disturbing my solitude!”

“Hey, what do you think Mom’s making for dinner tonight?” Lan asked.

“ _Focus_ ,” Megaman chided, raising his Buster again. “If I had five Zenny for every time someone told me something like that, I’d be the richest Navi on the Net.”

“Is that right,” Schilt snickered, before throwing wide his wings, making clear a collection of electrically-charged daggers which lined their walls. “ _You are an eyesore!_ ”

Megaman gave a little smirk. “Ready, Lan?”

“You know it!”

“Battle routine, set!”

“ _Execute!_ ”

* * *

_**Date: December 12, 20XX-4** _

**_Location: Watters-Markham Household_ **

The door shut with such a force that the light fixtures shook, and the whispers finally left her ears. A heavy sigh forced its way out of Paige’s lungs, and she slumped against the door she’d just slammed shut.

Inside her house, the lights were off, as usual. Despite the sun outside, the inside of the Watters-Markham house was stricken with a gray pallor, almost like the static on old televisions. Craning her head with notable effort, Paige looked over to the entryway’s mirror, almost expecting to see her own brown hair sprouting gray streaks to match the house.

It hadn’t. It might have been plain, but it still felt like the only thing that wasn’t gray when she always wore these dark-colored hoodies and sweatpants—not to mention her complexion got more ashen every day. It wasn’t as though she even liked dressing this way, either; it was just comfortable.

After a minute’s worth of staring listlessly at the mirror and silently contemplating nothing, Paige supported herself on the door to stand back up, her backpack granting her a bit of extra traction against the door as she did. She managed to at least stand into a slump, dragging herself into the barren kitchen to find something or another covered in tinfoil on the counter, with a note from her father that she didn’t have the energy to properly read, but which almost certainly said something about work running late tonight and how dinner was under the foil and she could take care of it herself.

Holding up the note and managing to read none of its words, Paige nevertheless nodded and muttered an “mmhm” as though her father was actually present, and then shuffled off toward her room, where it was at least slightly brighter.

This was how most of Paige Watters-Markham’s afternoons roughly went. Perhaps her classmates’ whispers were slightly louder today on account of yesterday’s events, and yes, perhaps she was a little more listless today than most other days, but it wasn’t really that atypical, she told herself.

Here is how Paige expected to spend the rest of the day. She expected to slough off her backpack and everything that wasn’t her underwear, and spend hours being slightly uncomfortably cold but not cold enough to justify the possibility of becoming hot again by putting on clothes or covering herself in a blanket. She expected to get on her computer—an old-fashioned model she hadn’t felt the need to ask for an upgrade to—and spend the time browsing the web looking for nothing in particular, maybe finding a few vaguely interesting posts about some subject she found briefly interesting, which she’d bookmark a few resources for and then neglect to ever follow up on.

An explanation like this means it never quite goes that way.

As Paige went through the process of shedding her excess baggage, her PET, sitting forlornly on the desk, made a _noise_. “Hm?” Paige looked over at it, and it almost looked as though it had moved slightly. Perhaps she’d forgotten about an automatic update or something. She went back to her process.

Another _noise_. Was that a connection? Paige knew what an outside connection to a PET sounded like, and that definitely sounded like it. Ennui and curiosity warred in her head for a few moments, but curiosity won, and she hopped off of her bed, walked a few steps into her office chair, and took a look at it.

Her PET was a bright pink that didn’t quite fit her aesthetic at the moment, as she’d gotten the model on a day out with—

A twinge. _I’m an old man, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I think it’d go great with—_

Paige shook her head. She hadn’t used this thing properly in months, now. Turning it on and scrolling through its top menu, it appeared she’d forgotten to entirely jack it out whenever she last jacked it in, so maybe some sort of cybermarketer had knocked on her proverbial door. It wasn’t as though her house’s connection was in a particularly populated area of the Cyberworld, though—relatively speaking, it was in the middle of nowhere. Why would—

“Owwww…”

Okay, that was definitely a voice. “Ow, ow ow ow ow, shit, that smarts,” the voice continued. Bookmarks, no, friends list, no, top menu, no… or, wait, that little yellow border wasn’t—

Ah. Aha. It rose a little. There was a slight curve of yellow hair from which a murmur of “Couldn’t even keep the huh?” arose, stopping when Paige adjusted the camera angle downward.

Hm. To be certain, Paige knew that was most definitely a NetNavi inside her PET. She and this NetNavi stared blankly at each other from both sides of the PET’s screen.

Paige was most familiar with several of her classmates’ largely uncustomized Navis, so to find one so obviously unusual literally inside her house was quite bizarre. Here, staring up at her as though she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, was a girl. A long streak of straight, silvery-blonde hair fell from her head down to her mid-back, with side-swept bangs that, at the moment, fell at least a bit into her eyes, with a single, particularly noticeable lock between her eyes. Her face, unadorned by any standard Navi visors or masks, with its thin lips and eyebrows and high, cool features, looked like it was intended to look aloof and taciturn, but nothing about the way those big blue eyes darted back and forth was anything but kind of ridiculous.

She wore a faded yellow vest over a sheer, black bodysuit, and wore a matching skirt over her waist. Her metallic gloves were sleek and close-fit, and didn’t cover her fingers, which was most likely for the oddly-shaped guns holstered on each side of her body, and she wore… were those _cowboy boots_? Sure enough, for the spurs. The emblem on her left glove looked like… a bee? No, a wasp, that was more wasp-shaped.

If not for a few telltale signs like the emblem and, well, being inside of an electrical device, she could easily have passed for an oddly-dressed human woman, especially given her visible, well-toned figure, the fact that she was advanced enough to have ‘flesh’ underneath a tear in the leg of her bodysuit, which she had just been interrupted in tending to, the obvious swell of her chest beneath her ve—

Wow. Wow, that was incredibly rude, Paige. Just give her the thrice-over, why don’t you? She inwardly chastised herself.

Almost another minute had passed while the two of them stared at each other before the Navi cleared her throat and said, “Uh, hi,” then closed her eyes and awkwardly waved. “Howdy. Nice weather we’re having!”

“It is,” Paige answered. “Is your leg okay?”

“Oh, this?” With a smug grin, the Navi leaned against the ‘wall’ of the PET and crossed her arms, saying, “No big deal. Little scratches like these don’t bug me much.”

“You sounded like you were in pain,” Paige said.

“You were listening,” the Navi said, not changing her posture at all. “Shit,” she said, still grinning smugly. “I look like a clown now.”

“Why are you inside my PET?” Paige asked.

This got another pause, before the Navi dashed closer to the screen, getting on her knees and bowing to Paige. “ _Please don’t kick me out yet I need a place to hide out for a few hours!_ I will do literally anything! I’ll do your cyberdishes! I’ll clean your cyberlaundry! I don’t know how, but I’ll do your real laundry and clean your real dishes!”

“W-whoa, slow down,” Paige mumbled, leaning back slightly away from her PET. “Why are you inside my PET?”

“It was there!” the Navi answered. She looked to her side, hands on her hips, and said, “Like, I’m on the run, right? And I see an open PET connection, no Navi attached to it, means there’s an empty PET sitting around and that’s a flawless place to run, right? I figured I’d be in and out after a bit and nobody would know I was here!”

“You’re on the run?” Paige blinked.

“Oh, yeah, very dangerous stuff,” the Navi said, nodding. “Long story. Anyway, turned out I was in the neighborhood is basically what I’m saying. Why’d you jack your PET in?”

“I don’t remember,” Paige said. “Is it the police?”

“Huh? No. No, I’m not running from the police, look, just—just give me a bit and then I’ll be gone, I swear. Do me this favor, random stranger? Find it in your heart?”

Clasping her hands together, this Navi knelt back down towards the screen, looking up and giving her best puppy-dog eyes. Unable to muster much emotion about the strangeness of this situation, Paige’s best response was a shrug and an, “Okay.”

There was another uncomfortably long pause before the Navi jumped up, saying, “Wait, seriously?”

“You asked for it, didn’t you?” Paige tilted her head, confused.

“No, I just—” The Navi shook her head. “Thanks, boss! Seriously, if you need anything done let me know, I’ve got nothing but free time right now.”

“Why didn’t your operator just jack you out?” Paige asked.

“Huh?” The Navi blinked, and then sat down, continuing, “Uh, haven’t got one. Kinda hard to do that if you don’t exist.”

 _That_ got Paige’s eyes to widen. “You don’t have one?”

“Nope,” the Navi said, and then looked up at the ceiling. “Still default, huh? You seem pretty low-tech. What’s your name, kiddo?”

“Paige. Paige Markham,” Paige said. “Fifteen years old.”

“I didn’t ask, but thanks. I don’t know how humie ages work sometimes,” the Navi grinned.

A few hours passed, during which this odd Navi who lacked an operator poked around inside Paige’s PET and commented on any number of things, like the pathetic length of her friends list (with sympathy,) her long list of bookmarks (shock,) and so on. She was animated—something Paige could barely manage on a good day. Paige was mostly quiet, responding when she was asked something but mostly whiling her time away doing some homework.

The hours passed, and soon the sun fell and gave way to night. “So you’re a high schooler, huh? What are you studying?” the Navi asked.

“I don’t know,” Paige answered.

“For real? You’ve been doing that homework for hours and you don’t know?” the Navi said.

“It’s high school,” Paige said. “I can’t make a choice yet. I just do what they tell me.”

“That’s rough, champ, real rough,” the Navi said, crossing her arms and nodding her head. “Me, I don’t study anything ‘cause I’m kinda dumb. Mandatory schooling seems real tough.”

“You’re a weird Navi,” Paige said, and the Navi went quiet. “Where did you come from?”

“That’s…” The Navi averted her gaze. “Long story. It’d take me a bit to tell, and—”

“Do you not want to?” Paige asked, and the Navi shook her head. “That’s fine.”

“I’d say ‘maybe later’, but, y’know…” The Navi rubbed the back of her head. “I mean, seriously, thanks for having me. I should probably be sa—”

Paige’s hand gripped her pen very tightly, and a few nerves she hadn’t felt move for a while twitched in her face. It was quick, almost instantaneous, but she looked over more quickly than she thought herself capable of these days to say, “You don’t have to go yet.”

There was another pause. “Wha?” The Navi fiddled with one of her guns.

“If you don’t want to leave, you don’t have to,” Paige said. “Nobody’s staying in there right now. I don’t mind if you stay for a while.”

There was _another_ pause before, again, the Navi said, “Wait, seriously?” Then, she repeated, “S-seriously?! I can?!”

“I can see if I can make the room a little nicer for you,” Paige answered. “I know it’s default, but I can look for updates. Do you want a place to sit?”

“Oh, come on, that’s way more than I could ask for, haha, yeah totally my dogs are kinda barking and your bookmarks are a crap seat,” the Navi said. “That’s. That’s really nice of you, thanks, kiddo! What a nice girl. You’re my new favorite human, Paige!”

“Your standards are really low,” Paige answered, standing up out of her seat, picking up her PET, and moving over to her bed. “You can stay as long as you like, I guess. I don’t really mind.”

“Sure thing, sure thing! Make it nicer for whoever comes next, right?” The Navi laughed, then tapped on the screen from her end. “Don’t break the bank on my account, though, huh, lady? Girl your age has to learn survival skills.”

“Mmhm,” Paige nodded. She stopped, though, in the midst of properly making her bed (something she never remembered to do in the morning.) “Um, excuse me. What’s _your_ name?”

One more pause. Then, the Navi said, “Mine?”

“Yes,” Paige said. _Who else?_ She didn’t say.

“Uhhh…” The Navi paused, and then answered, looking away, twiddling with a lock of her hair. “It’s Vespa. Vespa.EXE, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”

Vespa. So it was a wasp, Paige thought. She nodded, and gave her best smile, which was still pretty small. “Okay, Vespa. You can stay as long as you like. I really don’t mind.”

“Methinks I’ll take you up on that,” Vespa said. She grinned. “Thanks a bunch! You’re a sweet girl, you know that? Don’t worry, if you need the space back I’ll be right out.”

“I’ll let you know,” Paige said, and that was that.

“A while” is a pretty vague term, so it’s no surprise when days turn to weeks,

And then weeks turn into years,

And she just never wound up leaving.


	2. Episode 1-P: Brand New Day

_The year is 20XX._

_Humanity lives side-by-side with their ‘Network Navigator’ partners, computer programs that work with and defend the Cyberworld from virus attack. The Net society fostered by the famous scientist, Dr. Tadashi Hikari, continues to flourish, and the line between man and machine blurs with the advent of the Copy Bot, a machine which can bring a NetNavi into the real world._

_With the PErsonal Terminals held by the humans, it is not unusual for any human to be accompanied by a NetNavi anywhere they go—these programs serve as friends and family. However, evil still lurks beneath the surface, in the form of those who would manipulate the freedom granted by the Cyberworld to attempt to gain undue power._

_Time and again, these villains have been halted by one pair—the unstoppable Lan and Hub Hikari, a pair of twin brothers. The circumstances of their birth have led Hub to live as a NetNavi under the designation ‘Megaman.EXE’, and the brothers’ close bond has proven a force unlike any other, shuttering scheme after scheme of villain after villain._

_Eight years have passed since another form of revolution occurred—the invention of the worldwide antiviral software, “Colonel” and “Iris”, by the Hikari family’s former enemy, Dr. Albert Wily. The Hikaris have not given up their fight._

_This is not their story._

* * *

_**Date: August 12, 20XX** _

**_Location: Watters-Markham Household_ **

“Yeah! You got this!” The PET’s ‘alarm’ horn blared, letting loose a congratulatory fanfare that was entirely too loud for comfort. “Get those hair decs in! Uh! Yeah!”

Paige slumped over in front of her bathroom sink and stared at herself in the mirror. “Vespa.”

“Morning routines require encouragement!” Vespa fist-pumped from her cozy vantage point on her simulated lounge chair. “Already got mine done! I’m encouraging you! I’m being a good friend!”

“Vespa, please, it’s seven in the morning,” Paige groaned, checking the bottom of her eyes for bags. “I think I have a headache.”

“Okay, but can you blame me for being excited. Like, seriously?” Vespa asked.

Paige shook her head and gave a wan smile. “I guess not.” Her hand fidgeted and briefly went to tap the plane tickets in her pants pocket.

“My little girl’s growing up…!” Vespa let out a loud, melodramatic sob. “She’s going off and leaving me behind!”

“You’re coming with me,” Paige responded. She clipped a pair of pink hair bobbles onto her hair, carefully tying up her pigtails to ensure they weren’t too bunched up. “I—”

The PET beeped, and sure enough, soon Vespa had left the PET and charged into Paige’s bathroom herself. She leaned in, a hand on her chin, to inspect herself and Paige side by side in the mirror. “Hm, yes,” she nodded, “very nice, very nice.”

“Are you going out looking like that?” Paige asked, and Vespa took a moment to have the realization that she wasn’t dressed and was in fact still in her default uniform. About a minute later, she was back in the bathroom, properly dressed this time.

“I don’t get the appeal of showers,” Vespa said, leaning in again.

—Between the two, Vespa was taller by a few inches. When Paige had let this mysterious NetNavi into her house, she had not expected her, or, well, their, possessions to start trending so hard into _biker_ territory, of all things, but the black biker jacket, white tank top, navy blue jeans, and black boots look Vespa always seemed to gravitate towards (plus the tacky leather fingerless gloves she wore because she ‘didn’t feel complete without ‘em’) definitely gave that impression.

When compared to the cool, socially acceptably anti-establishment NetNavi she operated, Paige, with her pale green sweater, pigtails, black leggings, and pale green tennis shoes, and not to mention her generally rounder, softer, overall _less threatening_ frame, gave off the impression of being, in relativity, basically a stuffed toy. It was a good thing, Vespa often said, that she had such a tough, badass Navi, or else people might think they could ‘step’. Paige didn’t know what that meant and never entirely felt comfortable asking.

“Just think,” Vespa said, leaning over and putting her arm around Paige’s shoulders, throwing her other hand wide toward the bedroom window past the door, “this time tomorrow, we’ll be on a flight to Electopia, hanging around and eating in-flight cookies like cosmopolitan ladies of the 21st century.”

“For _educational_ purposes,” Paige said, giggling under her breath.

“Who cares?” Vespa shrugged, grinning brightly. “So, you ready to go?”

Vespa called her motorcycle Chaser. The garish yellow frame that Paige swore was visible from space made Chaser an unmistakable bit of engineering, one Vespa, well…

“Hey, buddy, hey you good-ass bike,” Vespa cooed, cuddling onto Chaser’s front and giving it a bit of affection, “sorry, Momma’s gotta go off for a while after today. You’ll be okay for a while, right, buddy? You won’t _die of loneliness_? I’ll die of loneliness…” Her head jerked up toward Paige, who had already put on her helmet (also that same horrendously garish yellow,) and she put on the puppy dog eyes. “Are you suuuure we can’t take him?”

“They wouldn’t let us,” Paige said, shaking her head.

“We’ll just have to make this one count, huh, Chaser?” Vespa said, rubbing Chaser sadly. “Damn travel security… Impinging on my sweet baby’s rights!”

All joking aside, though, Vespa cocked her head back—she materialized her helmet onto her head, as was a Navi’s privilege. “You ready? Everything ready for when we get back?”

“Everything,” Paige said. As she sidled onto the seat behind Vespa, she looked awkwardly to her side. “Not that there was that much…”

With a loud purr, Chaser roared to life. “Nice, let’s ruin that by buying more crap,” Vespa said. “We ride at dawn, baby!”

“The sun’s up,” Paige said. And, with another roar from Vespa’s bike, the two of them sped out of the house and onto the road.

* * *

(OP: “[Shouri no Uta](https://youtu.be/ULuyMtgCSPk)”, by Dandelion)

_Ole! Ole!_

_Saa, tachiagare!_

_(Now, stand up!)_

_Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite!_

_(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)_

_**Battle Network Vespa.EXE ~ Blue Bomber & Red Fox** _

Whenever Vespa drove, she had a tendency to go full throttle immediately. Even after all this time, Paige wasn’t fully used to it, so she held onto her helmet tightly as Vespa took a sharp turn onto the road. Once they passed the suburb in which the Markham household sat, they passed over one of Paige’s favorite spots—a bridge over a large river. The air immediately grew cooler over it, which was certainly nice on a summer morning.

The sun had begun to rise, and Paige couldn’t help but stare at how it cast its light over the water, sparkling by as they drove over the bridge.

_Dare ni mo mane wa sasenai sa_

_(I won’t let anyone intimidate us,)_

_Bokura dake no kono STYLE de_

_(even if we only have this as our Style.)_

_Kono uta ga mune ni todoku nara_

_(If this song reaches our hearts,)_

_Shouri wa mou te no naka ni aru_

_(victory is already in the palm of our hands!)_

“You okay back there?” Despite her helmet, Vespa’s hair blew in the wind, and it was all Paige could do to keep her head mostly beneath it. “Damn pretty,” she said, cocking her head briefly toward the river. “You gonna miss it?”

“A little,” Paige said. She shook her head. “Not too much. It’s not like I’ll never be back.”

_Akirameru koto wa keshite nai_

_(As long as we’re here,)_

_Kono basho ni bokura iru kagiri_

_(we’ll never give up.)_

_Tada tatakau tame dake ni bokura_

_(We’ll raise our fists to the sky)_

_Ima kobushi sora e tsukiageta_

_(so that we can fight for freedom!)_

“Hey, hey, we can’t just start thinking about coming _back_ already!” Vespa said. “This is a big opportunity! I, for one, haven’t been back in Electopia in _ages_ , lovely place. I know this fantastic cafe over in the CyberCity Central Area—”

“Can I actually drink anything there?” Paige asked, giggling to herself.

“I mean, no, but I can luridly describe the taste of the brew. You can vicariously enjoy it! That’s Electrical Communication, baby,” Vespa said, and Paige had no doubt she was grinning like an idiot over there.

_Taiyou ga bokura wo terashi_

_(Illuminated by the sunlight,)_

_Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni utau_

_(we sing so we can shine brightly on the Earth!)_

Passing by a series of traffic lights that serendipitously all stayed green for their ride, the countryside gave way to entering the city—those choked Netopian streets where Vespa made no secret she felt most at home. “Where are we heading first?” Vespa asked, as the smells of roadside food stands and the sounds of buzzing businesses began to fill Paige’s senses.

“I need to buy some flowers,” Paige responded, “so I think we should stop in at the apartments first. I think Mimel would really hate it if I kept her waiting too long.”

“For sure, for sure,” Vespa nodded. “Awful temper on that one. Why are you friends again?”

“Oh, don’t be mean,” Paige said, playfully smacking Vespa on the arm. Vespa chuckled, for her part, too.

_Ole! Ole!_

_Saa, tachiagare!_

_(Now, stand up!)_

_Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite_

_(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)_

“Well, hang on.” Vespa said, twisting her hands on Chaser’s handles. “It’s about to get bumpy, the pavement on this road is shit.” She waved her hand to the street light, in which there was a Mr. Prog that Vespa was friends with, and, _wham!_

“Vespa, you don’t go _faster_ for rough pavement, you—uuuuuuaaaaahhhh!” Paige began to rock up and down from the uneven road Vespa began to blow past.

_Ole! Ole!_

_Saa, maiagare!_

_(Now, fly high!)_

_Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni!_

_(Shine brightly on this Earth!)_

“Aaaaaaaaaand—”

Vespa careened into the parking lot, and pulled off a near-perfect Akira-style bike slide into open spots in a dingy apartment complex’s parking lot, before spinning into position, parked. “— _saaaafe!_ ”

“That was so illegal!” Paige panted, breathing heavily, her face going pale. “That was incredibly illegal! We’re going to get arrested. You’re going to get me killed before I even get to Electopia!”

“Yeah, but it was super rad, right?” Vespa said, taking off her helmet and turning to Paige with bright, expectant eyes.

After a very, _very_ heavy breath out from all the tension in her body releasing at once, Paige shook her head, grimaced, and said, “Yes, Vespa, it was rad.”

“Yeah! Whoooo!” Vespa pumped her fists and cheered, then bent over to pet Chaser. “You’re such a good hog, Chaser. Such a good boy! Oooh, the best motorcycle ever, yes you are, yes you are.”

_**Episode 1: Dawn of the New Heroes! Revival of the Vile Numbers?!**_

* * *

_**Date: August 12, 20XX** _

**_Location: Redvine Apartments, Apartment 204_ **

After one, two, three knocks, Paige and Vespa were let in, the clap-based levers for the door opening it without the apartment’s owner having to look over. “Come in,” she said, about three seconds after they’d already come in.

Apartment 204 was a noisy place—not in terms of sound, mind you, but there was simply no other way to describe the visual chaos. Easels stood all about the apartment in any number of corners, with paintings upon them that Paige had always admitted were too avant-garde for her to fully appreciate past their looking nice. A painting project on the ceiling, too, was doing well, with the pulley system for the owner to keep herself able to do so without falling. It was warm. She must’ve had the air conditioner off.

The dishes on the counter were kept almost sparklingly clean, and despite the messiness of the apartment, the actual hygiene of the place was always ship-shape. Such was the duality of its owner. “Ah-hah… hmhmhm… yeah, that’s the shit,” said that very same owner. She currently knelt by the large window on one side of her fairly spacious apartment, with a bouquet of flowers sat on the coffee table along with her current project—what looked to be some sort of plaster figurine.

“Mimel?” Paige asked, clearing her throat.

At full height, Mimel Blackgold was a fair bit taller than Vespa, though currently she was hunched over. She was wearing one of her favorite outfits for her craft, a faded green t-shirt whose front was more paint than fabric by this point, and an old pair of slightly torn blue jeans. She was a wiry, lean woman, with fists like springloaded rockets that could probably break the head of Vespa’s CopyBot if she tried hard enough, and flexible, which tended to help when she tied herself up to her ceiling.

No response. Paige tip-toed over to the other side, to look Mimel in the eyes, no matter how much those eyes were off in its own little world. “Mimel.”

Mimel’s usually-clean hair was currently falling into her eyes, red bangs covering her shiny blues. (She was naturally nearly white, but had dyed it once Vespa had shown up, feeling a little put off by having another woman with essentially the same hair color in this same circle.) Her nose twitched, and she was grinning goofily, making a few of the scars on her cheeks twitch, too—her thin face had given her an androgynous charm as long as Paige had known her. With an almost absurdly small brush, she leaned in for a dab of paint. “Good shit, now you stay right there,” she said, gingerly brushing. “Just about done.”

“Milady?” A black PET on a nearby counter rang out.

With a heavy groan, Mimel rolled her eyes and grunted out, “ _What._ ”

“Miss Paige is sitting right in front of you,” her Navi reported.

“Huh,” Mimel said, and then actually properly looked up, finding Paige patiently sitting at the other end of the coffee table. Vespa, for her part, had taken up Mimel’s recliner and was reclining as was appropriate. “Huh.” After a moment’s notice, Mimel jumped up. “Eh?! When the fuck did you get here?!” Paige waved.

“You let us in,” Vespa said, looking up at the slowly-turning ceiling fan. “Uuuugh, it’s hot in heeeeere,” she whined.

“Well, I’m letting the paint dry, dipshit, don’t want the wind to—” A second moment’s notice caused Mimel to realize that it was, in fact, Paige and Vespa who were present, and she lit up. “Oh! Paige! Hey!”

“Good morning,” Paige said. She was still waving.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Vespa asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not my childhood bestie, dipshit,” Mimel responded. She stood up, and in one swift motion, spun her table around so that she and Paige were closer across from each other. “Okay. You remember how chip codes work, right?”

“Yes, Mimel,” Paige said.

Mimel leaned closer into the table. “You got a—”

“You can use one star-coded chip to make a Program Advance in place of another code in Program Advances like Giga Cannon,” Paige said.

“And—”

“AreaGrab allows you to take some of your opponent’s field,” Paige said.

“Okay, but—”

“With wind Chips like AirShot, you can fire obstacles into your opponent for significant damage and to clear the field,” Paige said. She smiled. “I’ve heard it all before, Mimel.”

Mimel’s PET was on the table now. Under his wide-brimmed hat, adorned with roses, TundraMan.exe rubbed his chin. “Shall I load the Virus Busting 101 program, Milady?”

A heavy sigh escaped Mimel’s lungs, her eyes widening as she slumped over her table. “No. You know what, no. She’s probably got this. She’s gonna be fine.” She tilted her head up. “She’s gonna be fine, _right_ , Vespa?”

“What are you, her mom?” Vespa grimaced.

“I mean, basically,” Mimel shrugged. Paige nodded, too. As one, the two of them stood up. “Okay, so I know you’re gonna miss the sounds of home, I’ve been working on this.” She lifted up the figurine she’d been working on, and Paige finally properly looked at it.

“Oh—” Paige gasped. Mimel held in her hand a tiny scale model of a car of Paige’s favorite train, the Green Line of the Southeast Inter-City Netopian Network, made with such intricate detail that the connections to the cars in front and back were themselves detailed. The base it sat on had a headphone jack.

“If you plug in some headphones, I went and skulked on it for like two days and recorded the sounds of the line running,” Mimel said. She beamed. “It’s on seamless loop, shouldn’t need any fucking with, but if you’ve gotta have Vespa run any maintenance—”

The gentleness Paige held her little train car with stopped Mimel in her tracks, as Paige placed it inside her purse and then reached over to wrap Mimel in a hug. “Thank you,” she said, her voice nearly a whisper. “I love it. Really.”

“Heh, yeah, uh, it was nothing,” Mimel said. She put on a grin, but Vespa could see she was sweating. “No big. You’re good.”

“Excellent work, Milady,” Tundraman said. “You have successfully delivered a gift. Truly, you are the master of social interactions.”

“Hey, who the fuck asked you, pal?” Mimel said, breaking out of Paige’s grip and glaring at her PET. “Did I ask?”

“Naturally not, Milady,” Tundraman said. “However, you looked so dreadfully thrown off your game by this show of honest affection from your friend who only ever gives you those that I simply thought I might throw you a chance to regain your decorum—”

“Say hi to him,” Mimel said.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Paige said, a small blush on her face. “Hello to you too, Tundraman.”

“And a good day to you, Miss Paige. I’ve taken the liberty of turning the air conditioning to a more palatable level now that Milady has concluded her business. Shall I prepare you a drink, Miss Vespa?” Tundraman asked, and if Paige looked carefully, even though she didn’t have a straight look at him, she could just see that his eye was twinkling under his hat, and that he… had a rose in his mouth.

Once they’d properly settled down, Mimel leaned back on the floor and said, “Shit, you know, I never thought the day’d come. You’re actually leaving, huh?”

“Mmhm,” Paige said, nodding. “I’ll keep in touch. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried about _that,_ ” Mimel said. Vespa had briefly exited her CopyBot to engage in a virtual thumb war or something with Tundraman. “I mean, it’s just…”

“You don’t have to worry. I have Vespa with me,” Paige said. “I’ll be alright. I’m sure I’ll…”

“Don’t stay all cooped up inside, okay?” Mimel said, patting Paige on the back. “C’mon. It’s college! Make friends or something.”

Paige’s smile began to fall. “But—”

“It’s a new place. A new you, right?” Mimel grinned. “Take it from me, I know all about that. You’ve got this. You’re gonna be like, the coolest girl on the block.”

“That’s me, actually!” Vespa shouted from inside of Paige’s PET. “But I agree with the sentiment!”

“You wanna go soon?” Mimel asked, and Paige nodded. “Okay. Cool. Don’t worry, I can get you some flowers. You just take it easy, kiddo! This is your day!”

“We’re the same age,” Paige said.

“But only one of you is living _la vie boheme,_ ” Tundraman said.

“Mouth! Shut!” Mimel commanded. She turned back to Paige. “You know you can call me if you need anything, right? Anything at all.” Paige nodded. “Okay. Hey, by the way, fuckin’, _congratulations_! I went and saw the entry tests, way beyond me, man.”

“Ayanokoji Network College is quite an achievement,” Tundraman chimed in. “May I say, Miss Paige, that I have always known that you had it in you.”

“See?” Vespa poked her head in, too. “See?”

“Mom and Lambert say congrats, too,” Mimel said. “Mom wanted to throw a party for you, but I figured that’d make you crash.” Paige nodded. “I’m just…” There was a long, quiet pause. “...really proud of you. Really.”

“I know,” Paige said. She had curled into a ball from all the praise. “Thank you.”

The sun had risen to its highest, and the light flowed in through the windows, exposing small dust particles in the air. “The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?” Mimel crossed her arms, and kicked back. “Try to take praise a little better over there in Electopia.”

“It’s harder when it’s from you,” Paige said, blushing. “You _know_ me.”

“But it’s fine from Vespa?” Mimel raised an eyebrow.

“Well, then it’s _Vespa_ ,” Paige said, and Mimel nodded, understanding heavy on her back.

“Yeah, it hits different,” Mimel said.

“Ooh, are we talking about me?!” Vespa jumped into the middle of the two of them, having entered back into her CopyBot while they spoke. She turned to Mimel. “Hey, Mim, how’s my hair? Does it look right for a plane ride?”

“Turn around,” Mimel said, and Vespa did so. “Ugh. Comb your hair more, dumbass. How do you put up with this moron, Paige?”

“It’s my winning personality, probably,” Vespa said. “Why does she put up with you?”

“It probably has to do with mutually being social outcasts,” Paige said, and that got both Mimel and Vespa to pause and stare at her. Paige looked away. “Uh, sorry.”

Mimel snorted. “Try not to do that. You keep her being the straight man, got it, Vespa?”

“Oh, of course. I’d never lose being the funny woman for anything,” Vespa said, letting Mimel’s fingers run through her hair. “It’s an important part of our dynamic?”

“Milady,” Tundraman said, still stuck in his PET, “I must inform you that visiting hours have just begun over at the lab.”

As Mimel stood up and went to go grab her own bags, Vespa whined. “Awwww,” fiddling with the half of a braid that had been done into her hair.

* * *

_**Date: August 12, 20XX** _

**_Location: Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs_ **

Given the time, there wasn’t much time for browsing, but true to her word, Mimel did pick out some flowers. One of Mimel’s most striking skills was her ability to get on with just about every shopkeep in the area, and given how often they hung out, several of them recognized Paige by now, as well.

The busy streets of Crescent City bustled with vibration, vibration Paige felt in her feet every time she took a step. Standing on the ground always had a way of calming down. Being together with her two best friends probably helped, though. Vespa and Mimel bickered over just about every purchase, and Tundraman had his own occasional bit of sass to offer over them, as well. Given that these purchases were for Paige herself, she couldn’t help but keep quiet.

“You catch the new CyberWarrior Cybo?” Vespa asked, her eyes lighting up as though she’d just remembered something of dire importance. Mimel shook her head. “Dude.”

“Well, don’t tell me what happens!” Mimel gritted her teeth. “I gotta see it fresh! I’ll stream it when I’m alone again and done crying over the fact that you’re both gone.”

“I have logged this intention,” Tundraman chimed in.

“Thanks, T-Man,” both girls said. “Okay,” Vespa continued, waving her hands, “but like, I gotta let you down easy. Your theory about Ace got deconfirmed.”

“Shit, seriously?” Mimel put her face in her hands. “Damn it, all my evidence!”

“But the truth is _even better_ ,” Vespa said, leaning in closer. “You’re gonna be jumping out of your seat. I never saw it coming, it’s like, whoa.”

“Whoa?” Mimel asked.

“Whoa,” Vespa said, nodding her head.

“Whoa.” Mimel’s eyes widened.

And so it went. These two were on something of another level when they got to talking, so Paige just smiled and quietly listened. It gave her time to compose her thoughts, and think about the words she wanted to say.

Their destination was a glass building near the center of the city, a domed laboratory for development of the Cyberworld’s infrastructure. “Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs,” it was called, named after its founder. Vespa and Mimel stepped to the side to let Paige open the door.

The lobby, clean and sterile with several complicated bits of net infrastructure on display in display cases for the general public, was oddly empty for this time of day, but the receptionist smiled and waved his hand. “Afternoon, Paige!” he said.

Other than said receptionist, only one person was present—a short, bespectacled old man with a flat cap and goggles covering his eyes, with an odd, red apparatus on his back that Paige had never been sure of the purpose of detracting from the color of a perfectly good white labcoat. He turned from his pacing routine, and jumped. “O-oh, Paige!” After his startling calmed down, he walked closer. “Is it the twelfth already?”

Dr. Gaudile’s face had always reminded Paige of a duck bill, and she wasn’t sure why. “Good afternoon, Doctor. I’m here to see my uncle before I leave. Is something wrong?”

Gaudile nodded to himself. “Yes, yes, quite right.” He bowed to Vespa and Mimel. “And to both of you, ladies, good afternoon. Of course, I’ll have it open in just a moment. It’s just—”

“Is something wrong?” Paige asked.

“Well, it’s the _darnedest_ thing, you see,” Gaudile said, before trotting over to a potted plant. Paige walked over to look, as well. “I—well, Mr. Scanner made his security report and said he found some odd readings that he wasn’t quite sure of, but none of our systems have been compromised.”

“What’s that got to do with the potted plant?” Vespa asked.

“I have no explanation for this, but I swear to you this was not here the last time I was out here,” Gaudile said. He dabbed a bit of sweat from his forehead. “I’m not sure how to deal with this.”

“Paranoid old kook,” Vespa said, smiling.

“A paranoid old kook I might be,” Gaudile said, turning on his heel, “but a paranoid old kook with _reason_! I’m not the head here for nothing, young lady. Why, my paranoia—”

“You were saying, Doctor?” Paige said, tilting her head.

“Er, yes, quite right. I’m not sure how this potted plant could constitute a security breach, but I’ve been on edge! Oh, but I’m prattling. Please, follow me. I’ll escort you personally—why, it’s the least I could do on your big day!” Gaudile said.

The staff entrance to the labs proper was the fastest way in, so Gaudile produced his keycard and led the three girls in. “Are you eating well?” Gaudile asked. “Glenn would kill me if you weren’t, you know.”

“Oh, shit,” Mimel blinked. “You make sure she doesn’t just eat instant noodles and stuff, got that, Vespa?” She put her hand on Vespa’s shoulder. “Got that?”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Vespa said. She shook her head, then smiled. “Don’t worry, Doc, I—”

It started with a small beep, a beep that made Gaudile raise his head up and go “Hm? That shouldn’t be going off.” Then, just behind them, as they entered the labs proper, the door shut. All the lights in the hallway dimmed, rendering the translucent walls of many of the labs essentially opaque, and an audible locking sound _clicked._ “Er—that shouldn’t be happening.”

His office was right here, so Gaudile ran forward and attempted to open it. Locked. It wouldn’t open no matter how much he tried, or no matter how much Mimel tried to force the lock. The door they’d just entered was locked, as well. “T-this is the automatic lock that the lab activates when security is attempting to deal with an intrusion,” Gaudile said, the apparatus on his back pulling out some tissues for him to wipe his sweat with. “This shouldn’t be happening, today, of all days…”

Gaudile turned on his earpiece, and then keyed in to a chaotic cacophony of all of the other members of the staff. “Hey, the door’s locked! Who locked—” “Doctor, intrusion in Cylinder 6! The autolock’s been forcibly activated! I—” “—oh god, I need to get home, come on, my daughter’s recital—” “—Virus readings confirmed, they’re attacking several nodes—” “—the cooling’s been cut off, we can’t continue working like this or this server will _detonate_ , Dr. Gaudile, we need to get out of here—” “Dr. Gaudile, intrusion in Sector 3! Delta-level lock bypassed! Could they—”

“D-delta level?!” Gaudile sputtered. He looked around. “Aaargh, and me without my PET!”

Vespa, who’d just finished a pass of the hallway to confirm all the doors were locked, hurried back over and said, “What’s going on?”

“From the sound of it,” Paige said, pounding on a window to see the people inside a bit better, “someone’s forcibly activated the locks!”

“They’re—” Gaudile wiped a bit more sweat. “The Delta-level lock, they couldn’t be… Girls, one of you, please call the Officials! This is very important! We need to—”

“Did I hear that one person say _detonate_?” Mimel asked.

Gaudile yelped. “Ah, it should only cause some structural damage, but the risk to the personnel is definitely immense, yes, er…”

Now that they’d all crowded around each other again, Paige put her hands on Dr. Gaudile’s shoulders and asked, “Doctor, is there a port in this hallway we can use to access the laboratory’s network?”

“E-eh?!” Gaudile said, his goggles falling over his face for a moment. “Well, yes, you could use the ventilation system’s access point for an indirect entry point, but—why, there are viruses, and someone who’s managed to bypass quite a lot of our security, it’s too dangerous—”

“Vespa, into the PET!” Paige said, turning to Vespa.

“Right!” Vespa said, and she jumped into the CopyBot, flashing out of existence and leaving the yellow dummy behind. A small beep registered her return to the PET. “Alright, let’s go! Don’t worry, Doc, I’m a professional.” She probably winked, at that point.

“E-eh, but, I can’t—” Gaudile sputtered, but Paige nodded at him and ran off towards the nearest vent. “I—oh, but she really is just like Glenn… always the hero...”

Mimel, for her part, smiled. “The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?”

“S-so it is, so it is, Miss Blackgold…” Gaudile said. Mimel then turned to find her own port to jack in, and Gaudile whimpered to himself. “Oh, dear…” He held Vespa’s CopyBot tightly.

As for Paige, she found the vent, and her reasonably trained eyes quickly located the jack-in point. “Alright, Vespa,” she said, taking in a breath and wiping her own sweat. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be!” Vespa said. As soon as the connection was established, Paige flipped the switch.

“ _Jack in, Vespa! Execute!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Duo Spotlight!
> 
> Mimel Blackgold: The younger daughter of Crescent City's mayor, she currently lives in a cheap apartment for the sake of furthering her art career—a subject she feels passionately about. She is also the Crescent City medium-weight MMA champion. She has been Paige's friend since childhood, and probably just about the only girl Paige has never had a crush on for any length of time. Hates the musical 'Rent'.
> 
> Tundraman: Entered the service of the Blackgold family some six years ago. He shares Mimel's passion for art, though his is most particular to ice sculpture. A man of a dramatic, posturing flair that could charitably be called 'flamboyant' and incharitably be called 'smarmy', he enjoys taking shots at Vespa and Mimel—but not Paige, really. Loves the musical 'Rent'.


	3. Episode 1-V: Electrical Communication

_**Date: August 12, 20XX** _

**_Location: Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs ~ Internal Network Sector 1_ **

—and in a rush of sensation, the world came flooding in—

All at once, lights and sounds began to flood into Vespa’s senses, as she landed on the ground, her hand tapping lightly with two fingers onto the cyberearth. Perfect form. “Alright, I’m in,” she said, turning her head up to Paige.

Within the lab’s network, a great array of square, blocky buildings, lined the horizon as far as the eye could see, with flashing pillars resembling the lights on highway support holding up some of the taller buildings. Vespa had entered into an area of the lab that her brief excursions inside the network beforehand hadn’t really shown her. A slight sound of an alarm siren was all that she could hear.

Having entered with her combat uniform on, Vespa grabbed down toward her waist. Her twin, trusty sidearms manifested instantly, returning once more to her grip. “It _has_ been a while since I got to shoot anything.” She took a quick diagnostic of all of her Hive Busters’ firing chambers, but everything was operating as normal. “All green.”

“Be careful,” Paige said, and Vespa nodded.

Vespa’s steps didn’t make a sound—she had long since gotten used to the FloatShoes modification Paige had picked up and installed, and frankly, it was pretty fun even when it wasn’t useful. She rounded a corner around a building and began to buzz about, looking around for anything in particular.

It didn’t take long. High above, Vespa saw a _flash_ , and then a few seconds later, a strike of thunder. “One, two… Looks like it’s three sectors away, Paige,” she said. “Think that’s our guy?”

“First, we need to unlock the auto-lock,” Paige said. “Where’s the entrance to the second sector?”

As it turned out, once Vespa made a bit more progress, it became clear to see. This outer rim of the lab’s network stood around a barrier created by ten cylindrical nodes, the only entrance to which (that Vespa could see, anyway,) was blocked by several firewalls that she didn’t want any part of. One of the cylindrical nodes, far on the other side, flickered, as though it was running low on power.

The entrance was blocked by a whole squad of Gaudile’s personal anti-viral programs, the ‘Preon’ model—oblong little soldier-men in a wide array of colors. According to him, they were about fourth or fifth on his life’s works, which meant they were probably pretty effective, all told. “Okay,” Vespa said, huffing out, “let’s try and avoid that. How’s our folder doing?”

“I ordered a few new ones online,” Paige said. “A few we can’t get around here. The Circle-Guns and Asteroids should do decently well… oh, and some Buster improvements. Are you sure you don’t want to try any Risky Honey chips?”

“If we’ve gotta have defense, stick me to the Reflectors,” Vespa said, rolling her eyes. “Don’t type-cast me. We got Caps?”

“White and Orange, if need be,” Paige said. “And I managed to pick up another Wood+20.”

“Sick!” Vespa fist-pumped. “If the guy’s firing off lightning bolts, I can waste him in no time—hold up,” and she promptly dived to into more open space as a wave passed her by on the ground.

Turning around, Vespa came face-to-face with the ever-recognizable beady, black eyes and yellow construction helmets of a group of Mets. One had just finished using his pick-axe, and so the next Met in line began to waddle on its little feet to be put more in line with Vespa to use its shockwave.

“They’re like rats, I swear,” Vespa said, flipping a lock of hair out of her face. “Okay, follow me, little guy.” She began to sidle to the left, angling herself so her little friend could be put at a relatively even angle with the other. Once she did, just as it was raising its pickaxe to launch its projectile—

“Asteroid, coming your way!” Paige called out. A flaming ball materialized from the sky and tumbled toward the central Met, as Vespa brandished her guns at both of the two on the sides. While her Hive Busters were designed to have some travel time, Vespa’s particular customizations resulted in her wasp-shaped bullets reaching their target near-instantly. The Met’s processing was completely halted in its tracks by the sudden shots, and all three Mets were obliterated simultaneously.

“Nice!” Vespa cheered, and grabbed a fragment of the left-behind data. It was another Reflector. “You ever gonna get rid of any of these?”

“No, I—Vespa, behind you!”

She’d noticed, of course, but the virus had come in too fast for Vespa to react properly. A Red-Stinger virus, which Vespa always thought looked rather like some kind of red, three-pronged bee, had closed in behind her while she was distracted, and was ready to strike.

That was, until it was visibly split apart, fragments of ice surrounding it as it sparkled and vanished. “Miss Vespa, might I suggest a touch more situational awareness given our current predicament?”

“I was going to thank you until you said that,” Vespa said. Then, she stuck her tongue out.

Tundraman lowered his raised foot, equipped with his ever-present _Hyogetsujin_ ice-skates—close-range weapons as well as mobility enhancers that allowed him to skate past hazards that many Navis struggled with. Compared to the nearly-human Vespa, Tundraman was much more obviously a program—beneath his wide-brimmed hat adorned with a blue, icy moon insignia, his small, reddish eyes did not actually connect to a face, but a multi-paneled face mask which carried his favorite rose in its grip.

Aside from his pale-blue ‘ponytail’ actually made of interlocking miniature sheets of ice, and a great, icy rose which adorned his shoulder, most of Tundraman’s armor was shaded purple, ornately designed with trim that harkened back to well prior to the advent of Net Society. (Supposedly, he’d designed it himself.) He had no feet aside from his ice skates, and in fact, his legs were tapered very finely. As for his Buster equivalent, both of his arms were adorned with great bow-like fixtures for his _Tenro Shikku_ , a finely-tuned projectile rig with two firing modes—’Ice Gatling’ and ‘Tundra Storm’, he called them.

“Naturally,” he said, and reached over to pet Vespa’s head, since he was about a foot taller than her already significant height. “Truly, you are the peak of awareness. My apologies for speaking out of turn, Miss Vespa.”

“Who even gave you this stupid personality?!” Vespa fumed, doing her best to smack his arm away—ah, but he was too agile. “You’d be a lot more likable if you cut out the smarm.”

“Oh!” Tundraman put his hand on his chest, gasping in mock shock. “But my smarm is all I have, Miss Vespa! How is a man to operate without it?!”

“Operating’s _my_ job,” Mimel said. “Now quit fucking around and get to work. Hey, Gaudile! How do we get past that barrier?”

“Ah, well, you see, the ten-cylinder security system functions—if I had my PET, I could simply—that is to say—”

“Okay, so we improvise,” Mimel said. She eyeballed the cylinders, and then snapped her fingers. “Tundraman, you think you could get up one of those buildings?”

“Who, might I ask, do you think I am, Milady?” Tundraman scoffed. “I can only ask if Miss Vespa believes herself capable of following along with me.”

“Who do you think _I_ am?” Vespa snorted, punching Tundraman in the side.

Clasping his hands together to form his gatling, Tundraman aimed at one of the buildings to their side as a rapid-fire stream of icy projectiles launched itself from his weapon. Each of them stuck in the side of the building, sticking in to make an obvious grappling point on the sides. Vespa grinned, and gave him a thumbs up. “I got this.”

“I should certainly hope so,” Tundraman said.

Vespa leapt and grabbed on to the lowest ice grip, as Tundraman powered up his skates and began to ride on a sheet of ice onto and up the side of the building. They reached the top at about the same time, but Vespa landed fairly ergonomically, whereas Tundraman felt the need to do a flip and pose in the air, tossing his rose for an invisible crowd. Vespa took the opportunity, though, and followed the rose with her guns, as it flew towards, and struck, a node atop the much closer heights of the cylinder barrier.

“Milady, at the ready!” Tundraman called out.

“Got it!” Mimel said, and her Coming Road chip had an immediate effect—arrows facing toward the edge of the building appeared on the side of the roof in front of the two of them. Vespa and Tundraman both readied themselves, and then ran towards the conveyors, leaping off right at the edge.

Cyberwind running through one’s hair wasn’t quite the same, but it also lacked a certain resistance that meant the two’s leap launched them farther, far enough to tumble onto the end of another building that got them closer. Thankfully, Mimel had a number of Coming Roads at the ready—enough to get them right up to Cylinder 2. “Whatever would you do without us?” Tundraman asked.

“Probably fight all of those guys,” Vespa said. She wrinkled her nose and grinned. “Not that that would’ve been a problem.”

The side of the cylinders were electrified, so there wouldn’t be any repeating of the Ice Gatling trick. “Ah, I can get us up there!” Paige said. “Vespa, loading Dash Attack!”

The angular, aerodynamic green signaled the simulated head of a Fishy virus being formed around Vespa’s hand, and she gripped the inside grip tight. Tundraman grabbed onto her other hand, and Vespa let loose—Fishies were known for their momentum, and this allowed for their signature chip to be used as a momentum booster.

Vespa launched into the air, well above the top of the cylinders. With a thought, she activated a vestigial part of her arsenal she hadn’t had reason to use for quite some time—a pair of wings that were mostly good for slowing descent. She was plenty strong to carry both herself and Tundraman, but that didn’t stop her from griping at him, “God, how heavy do you need to be?”

“My true power is contained within my weight. I have a deadly secret within me, like one of Milady’s action figur—”

“Drop him, Vespa,” Mimel commanded.

“Please don’t drop me!” Tundraman squeaked.

A squadron of Preons popped into existence atop Cylinder 2, then immediately took notice of the two descending Navis. A black-colored Preon pointed its Buster-like fixture at Vespa, and the other Preons let loose a word bubble that said ‘YES, SIR!’ as they aimed their guns at Vespa to begin firing.

“Okay, sure,” Vespa said, “interrupt a lady while she’s flying.” Her other hand was free, so she began to fire back, but evading the bullets while also carrying Tundraman was troublesome. “Paige?”

“On it!” Paige said. The Preons were uncognizant of targeting reticles appearing beneath their feet, circling around beneath them until Vespa, who was now able to drop down, snapped her fingers. The ground beneath the Preons’ feet exploded in a burst of energy, and only the commanding Preon was strong enough to remain active—but when Vespa and Tundraman landed atop Cylinder 2, Vespa just sort of pushed it off the outside of the Cylinder. Its small arms flailed helplessly.

From atop Cylinder 2, the two got a closer look at what was going on inside. A number of the scientists’ Navis were in the second Sector, running from a number of different viruses—Red Stingers were present, as were the round, yellow forms of Billies summoning projectiles with their lightning-rod hand fixtures, and Scarecrows appearing out of the ground and calling down lightning from the Cylinders to blast holes in the walls. “I’m sensing a little bit of a theme here,” Vespa said.

“Ah, yes, well,” Gaudile chimed in, “you see, when a security system like this is broken into by an elemental Navi, it tends to be much easier for like-elemental viruses to appear within the network as well. That electrical Navi’s let havoc come into my lab!”

“This will be an unfortunate circumstance for me,” Tundraman said, shaking his head, “but no true warrior would leave innocents to such a fate.”

Vespa leapt off of Cylinder 2, using her wings to slow her descent once more, and began to open fire upon a squad of viruses chasing down a group of (largely unmodified) scientist Navis. The green and yellow form of a Navi with a larger coat turned around and noticed, then looked up and started waving his hands. “Hey! Down here!”

“Yup,” Vespa said. She’d obliterated the Billies, who weren’t particularly hardy, by the time she landed. As she did, a Scarecrow popped up behind her, but Vespa casually jammed her left Hive Buster into its face and opened fire, shredding it at the push of a button. “Hey, where’s the security auto-lock? The humans are stuck.”

“Well, you can’t just tell her that, that’s against protocol!” A blue Navi said.

“I really don’t care right now,” said the green and yellow Navi. “Do you see over there?” Among the largely walled-off cyberlabs, he pointed through the glass to a glowing red node on the far side. “There’s a Mr. Prog who sits in there and controls the auto-lock. He’s probably on the fritz right now.”

Tundraman finally took the time to land, and as he did, he carved another Scarecrow in twain with his skates. “And how might we reach Sector 4?”

There was a moment of silence. “Um, this lab has three sectors,” a pink Navi chimed in. “There isn’t a Sector 4. But if you want to reach Sector 3, it’s, um…”

She pointed to the opposite end of the area, right near the sparking Cylinder 6. A stairwell down deeper into the cyberlab sat there, its doors having been visibly torn open by powerful claws, servos still sparking. “It’s over there,” she said. “If you’re sure.”

Vespa groaned, and began to run forward into the hallways of the cyberlabs—unfortunately even more circuitous than the real lab’s hallways could be. “Great. Don’t think we’ve got time for that. You good to evacuate anyone else and get the lock fixed, T-Man?”

Tundraman, skating by her side, nodded. “That is likely our best option.” A trio of Billies in their path were crushed by a fist from the sky. “Ah, it’s Milady’s favorite chip.”

“Justice One makes me feel happy, okay?” Mimel scoffed. In the real world, Paige and Mimel clearly got closer to each other, based on the vocal quality. “They’re right. You stay here and _focus_ —I’ll help evacuate once we get the lock open.”

“W-w-what if you run into the intruders?” Paige sputtered.

“Eh, she hits like a freight train, she’ll be fine,” Vespa said.

“Yeah, basically. I’ll just punch ‘em until they fall the fuck over,” Mimel said. “I—look out!”

At a split in the road, Vespa and Tundraman both leapt back as the round, purple forms of a ring of Shakey viruses lowered around them. The Shakies’ pylons extended from their bodies as they turned inward, their one, gaping eye staring toward the two Navis. A field of sparking electricity began to circle them as the Shakies increased in speed.

“We haven’t time for this,” Tundraman said, and raised his bow toward the direction of the autolock. “Miss Vespa, prepare to run.” Vespa nodded.

Tundraman’s bow shifted shape into a more crossbow-like configuration as he launched a large, freezing blast of his Tundra Storm from it. It nailed one of the Shakies square in the eye and froze it into a block of ice, causing the other Shakies to gravitate onto it. With her opening made, Vespa started running. “Thanks! See you in a bit, T-Man!”

“And I you, Miss Vespa. Do be careful!” Tundraman said.

* * *

_**Date: August 12, 20XX** _

**_Location: Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs ~ Sector 3 (Delta-Level Security Zone)_ **

Once Vespa had cleared the stairwell down, the atmosphere of the area changed in an instant. The wide, cool blue of the lab’s cyberworld gave way to an underground maze, where most of the light came from diodes on the walls lighting the path for whatever few workers no doubt came down here.

Well, and the flash of Vespa’s muzzle. Now there were Bunnies, too! Much as Vespa would’ve loved to pick one of their cute, unassuming little pink heads up, those electrically-conductive ‘ears’ launched their ZapRing projectiles whether she did that or not—and she didn’t much like those.

“Why can’t there be a map?” Vespa moaned, doing her best to dodge past a number of security scanners. A tight corner led her directly into the face of a Billy, who launched a bolt of lightning through the ground that Vespa nearly didn’t leap in time to dodge. A bullet to the face wasted it pretty quickly. “I mean, if your own employees don’t even know you have a fourth sector—”

“Maybe you misheard?” Paige asked.

“I don’t mishear things,” Vespa said. “I know how far that was from.”

An installation of Killer Eyes had crowded together to block a hallway, so Vespa decided that was probably a good place to go. Their eyes tracked her, and simultaneously, four beams of electricity blasted toward her—but she leapt into the air, and while they were stuck, pointed downward toward them. In the nick of time, Paige’s Magnum chip blew up the ground beneath them, and Vespa was able to take advantage of the chaos to fire on the last one and grab the data left behind as she ran through.

The viruses weren’t there for nothing. Vespa stopped in her tracks. “Uh, that’s worrying.”

A massive hole had been blown in a wall, several miniature security cylinders sparking and attempting to reorient their lock, to no avail. In front of it, a massive Raider-Killer antiviral (another of Gaudile’s,) sat decimated, with one of its claw-like arms ripped clean off, and its snake-like head missing its lower jaw. Several puncture wounds sparked in its green torso. “So, I’m of two minds here,” Vespa said.

“Yes?” Paige asked.

“Okay, so like, I’m glad I don’t have to fight this thing, but I’m not looking forward to fighting whatever killed it,” Vespa said.

Past those security cylinders was a large chamber right in the center of this massive underground labyrinth—a broken tube lay in the middle, cyberwires fizzling out as they dangled. Underneath Vespa’s feet was… an _engraving_ of some sort. “Um, Dr. Gaudile?” Paige asked. “What is this?”

As Mimel began to evacuate the other scientists (having cleared the auto-lock on her end,) Dr. Gaudile puttered up to her PET and said, “Er, yes, that is… that’s the—” He leaned in to whisper. “That’s the entrance to Sector 4… It’s maximum security! You manipulate the mural in order to unlock it… er, and the stairwell opens up beneath the tube—oh the tube’s broken, that is extremely not good, er…”

“Okay, well, how do I unlock it then?” Vespa asked.

“Ah, let me see here, er—” Gaudile sputtered for a moment. “Oh! Well, my goodness. It appears to. Already be unlocked? Yes.”

“Yeahhh, that’s what I thought.” Vespa shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Okay, so, I just gotta wait here until—”

She didn’t have to wait long. A stairwell downward loudly clambered into position, and Vespa took up position behind the remnants of the tube.

“—so what do you suppose this thing is, anyhow?” That, judging by the distance of the voice, was an Operator, and one who’d disguised their voice. “I wasn’t able to make it out while I was in there.”

“Whatever it might be, it’s in their hands, now.” The low, growling voice of a Navi said. “We shouldn’t trouble ourselves too strongly.”

“If you say so,” the operator said, a sigh evident even through their distortion.

The Navi who came up the stairs was _definitely_ Vespa’s man, judging by the electricity running through his sharp claws. Actually, perhaps ‘man’ was the wrong word—even down to his posture, this Navi more resembled a _beast_. Vespa didn’t quite know what his ornate, ‘eared’ head, fang-like spikes covering a black space within his head, were quite supposed to resemble, as she was anything but a wildlife expert, but it was probably more cat-like than dog-like? While they didn’t move, the red ‘eye’ marks near his ears were likely his optic sensors. His body crackled with a blue-green lightning, and his form rippled with a ‘breathing’ that simulated the rippling of heavy muscles.

His claws, on both sets of his paws, were sharp and curved, sparking every few seconds—and the claws on his hands were bordered by even larger claws connected to his armor. A red V emblem on his chest was surrounded by another set of claw-like fixtures on his shoulders. His heavy boots were about as pointy as the rest of him, grounded to the floor with tesla coil-like fixtures, and his spiked tail served as a cylinder for a number more of those fixtures—by Vespa’s guess, they helped to conduct energy. Combine all this with a deeply dour black-and-red color scheme, and most people would likely run in terror at the sight of this Navi.

“Ideally, we won’t be stopped by any more guards on our way out,” the Navi said. He growled. “My claws have already been bloodied enough for one day. These civilians should learn to stay out of the way.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” his operator said. “Hurry and leave that sector—I’ll jack you out as soon as I’m able—”

The mysterious beast’s head cocked to the side, and he dashed backward, just barely dodging a blast from Vespa’s guns. “Oh ho ho ho,” she said, blowing simulated smoke off of the barrel as she strutted out from her hiding place, holding the other gangster-style behind her back, “did I hear someone say you can’t jack out from here?”

“This one’s different!” The operator said. “Flauclaws, on your guard!”

The beast—’Flauclaws’—took a look at Vespa, and though his eye fixtures didn’t move, Vespa knew when a fighter was giving her the once-over. “A combat-ready NetNavi? I was under the impression that this lab let their antivirals do the work.”

“Eh, nah.” Vespa aimed her outward gun at Flauclaws, and then waggled it up and down. “I’m just a concerned citizen. So whatcha got? Who’d you get it for? Is it for a giiiirl?”

“Wha—” Flauclaws’s operator sputtered. “It is not for a girl! And—what business is it of yours, anyway?”

“Sir,” Flauclaws said, throwing his claw up. His operator sputtered a bit more before going silent. “If you’re brave enough to have a smart mouth, you must be ready for a fight. Let me warn you—you don’t know what you’re dealing with.”

“Inform me, o brave warrior! Who am I dealing with?” Vespa smirked.

Flauclaws stood up properly, crossing his arms. “Very well. I am Panter Flauclaws, Subject 2-G of the Beast Brigade. If you do not leave posthaste, I will be forced to tear you to shreds.” His tail snaked above his shoulder, pointing menacingly at Vespa.

“Oh, you’re a _panther_ ,” Vespa said, crouching down and patting her legs. “No can do, kitty. My operator’s got a date here and you’re kinda in the way.”

The ‘fangs’ on Flauclaws’s helm closed together near-imperceptibly. “I see,” he said. “I’m very sorry for what I’m about to do to her day, then.”

“Big words, champ!” Vespa smirked, and aimed both of her Busters at Flauclaws. “Show me a good time and maybe we can get you some catnip later!”

“Vespa, be careful! He looks pretty tough!” Paige called. “I’m ready when you are!”

“Flauclaws, show them what you’re made of!” his operator cried.

“That’s never stopped me before, has it? Have a little faith!” Vespa scoffed.

“I’ll char your bones black, ‘concerned citizen’!” Flauclaws growled."

**““Battle routine, set!””**

**““ _Execute!_ ””**

* * *

The instant her opponent roared ‘Execute’, Flauclaws had already appeared directly in Vespa’s face, leaving a trail of crackling afterimages in his wake. Vespa dodged backward to evade a sideways swing from his claws, but had to land on the ground and roll out of the way to avoid a follow-up pounding attack. From her vantage point on the ground, she fired a few shots, and a hiss of pain from Flauclaws told her quite obviously she’d hit.

“She’s a Wood-type!” Flauclaws’s operator called out. “Be careful!”

Flauclaws leapt back for a reposition, and his claws crackled with energy. He sliced the air, and thin, circular waves launched from his claws, flying toward Vespa. She leapt up and dodged forward, but the waves curved around behind her, limiting her position. When she got her orientation back, Flauclaws’s left claw had morphed into a multi-barrelled Buster, which was already revving up.

Vespa smirked, and drew her own Busters. Flicking a switch with her middle fingers, she set herself into Full-Auto mode, and held down the trigger to intercept Flauclaws’s blasts with her own bullets. After a moment of firing, Flauclaws winced. “She’s outspeeding Flauclaws’s Beast Buster?!” his operator cried. “Long-range is a bad idea with this one! I’m loading Area Eaters!”

“Understood!” Flauclaws said, as he activated his operator’s loaded chip. The wispy wave-body of an FM Float virus appeared in front of him, and swiped its claw against the ground. Vespa felt the room _shift_ as the virus’s claw contracted the space the two were able to battle within, and soon she was much too close to Flauclaws for comfort.

“Vespa!” Paige cried, as another Asteroid came from above—but though it struck Flauclaws directly, and his body flashed to indicate as much, he trucked through the explosion, leaving a hole in the ground in his wake, and took another charged swing at Vespa. “SuperArmor?!” And—

_AUTO System a-AUTO Sy-AUTO System activating._

One for the electricity, one for the first swing, and one for the second. Flauclaws’s claws landed a direct hit, one striking Vespa’s chest, the other slicing across her stomach. She hissed. “Okay, let’s avoid that! Paige!”

“On it!” Paige said. “I’ve got the full set!” One, two, three, four, five! Vespa inwardly fistpumped (not outwardly, she was busy.) She aimed her Busters at Flauclaws, who had leapt back, but was now charging again, and—

A Champy’s flaming hook appeared from the ether, clobbering Flauclaws in the chin, and this time, his movements were halted. He grunted, but the White Capsule addition to the Flame Hook had paralyzed him for just the moment Vespa needed. With a spin of her Busters, she opened fire, her Vesper Chasers rapidly eating through Flauclaws’s defenses.

Then, she aimed one upward, into the hole that Flauclaws had left behind, to launch an orb-shaped projectile from the top of her Buster. It flew forward, and landed in the hole—

“Kuh?!” Flauclaws let out a roar as, from behind him, a massive Geyser exploded from the hole, the waves rushing over him. His defenses had activated, but he held his head, taking staggering steps around and wasting valuable time.

“F-Flauclaws!” his operator cried. “His vestibular sensors are on the fritz! An Orange Capsule?!”

Vespa’s shots continued, piercing through Flauclaws’s defenses to continue whittling away at his power. The space of the arena began again to shift, this time expanding, as Flauclaws’s Area Eaters had begun to lose their effectiveness. “Paige!” Vespa cocked her head upward.

“On it!” The familiar reticles of a Circle-Gun began to appear underneath Flauclaws’s feet, but with his debilitated movement, he wasn’t able to dodge out of the way in time. The ground beneath his feet exploded, dealing another heavy blow through his defenses. He staggered to his feet, the debilitation wearing off.

“You’re pretty good,” he grumbled, shaking off his delirium. “I—”

* * *

Suddenly, a wavy, black portal exploded into existence near Flauclaws. “Flauclaws, K opened you an escape route. Get in there!”

“Wha—hey!” Vespa sputtered, with a huff. “Hold on a second here!”

She began to fire, but Flauclaws’s operator activated a RockCube Chip, placing an obstacle that halted her bullets. Vespa grunted, and continued firing. “I don’t enjoy this,” Flauclaws said, “but it appears I’ve places to be. Forgive me. I hate to leave a fight unfinished.”

One more shot, and the RockCube broke behind Flauclaws’s back. “I’m not just gonna let you get away with… whatever it was!” Vespa said, aiming her Busters at Flauclaws.

Flauclaws shook his head. “...On that subject, our battle here is meaningless. I’m not so foolish as to keep up a battle I wasn’t prepared for that has no actual benefit.”

“Huh?” Vespa tilted her head.

“I don’t _have_ it,” Flauclaws said, and Vespa was somehow certain that he was rolling his eyes at her. “I’m here as muscle. Do I look as though I have pockets?”

“...Okay, fair,” Vespa said, lowering her weapons. “So, what, is this the part where you tell me we’ll finish this later?”

“For both of our sakes, I hope that we don’t.” Flauclaws said. “...With that said, you said your name was ‘Vespa’, yes?”

“Technically, I said that,” Paige said.

“Mm. I have a standing message to give to a ‘Vespa.EXE’, coincidentally enough.” Flauclaws brought his claw up to his mouth and cleared his throat. “‘We don’t accept deserters. Stay out of this.’”

A shot rang out through the security room. The wasp-shaped bullet buried itself into the wall near Flauclaws’s head. “Just go,” Vespa said. She was looking away, her bangs covering her eyes. “Get out.”

“...As you were, then,” Flauclaws said. He leapt through the portal and disappeared from sight, leaving the room quiet again, save for the faraway sound of alarms.

There was a long, quiet moment amidst the chatter of people being evacuated from the lab. “...Vespa?”

“‘K’? Who’s ‘K’?” Vespa brought her hand up to her chin. “If _he_ ’s involved, it can’t be anything good… that old man only ever makes trouble.” She began to pace about. “What does the old man even have down here that _they’d_ want—?”

“Vespa!” Paige called a bit louder.

“Huh what hey yeah hi!” Vespa leapt into the air and staggered back cartoonishly on one foot from the direction of Paige’s voice.

“Can you check inside there? Just to make sure,” Paige said.

“Ah, yeah,” Vespa said. She shook her head and smacked her cheeks with both hands. “On it!”

The rumored fourth sector of Glenn-Markham Labs’s network wasn’t very large at all—it amounted to little more than a small hallway into a tiny, round room, where several layers of security lockboxes had been bypassed to take… something. Vespa wasn’t sure what exactly was in here, but she was fairly certain it wasn’t supposed to be this small blue card. She picked it up, and read the message on it.

_Your ‘Erosion Key’ is now my property! Charmed~_

A small insignia of a black sea-shell sat at the bottom-right of the card. Vespa snapped a picture of it with the camera function of Paige’s PET. “‘Erosion Key’, huh? What’s the Doc even working on?” Vespa muttered.

“Er, well… for now, we should probably get you out of there,” Paige said. “Hurry on out, please. And… Vespa?”

“Yeah?” Vespa asked.

“...Um, please don’t worry too much,” Paige said. “I, er…” She trailed off.

“I’m not worried! What, do I look worried?” Vespa waggled one of her guns up and down a bit, looking away from Paige. “I—”

“Your hands are trembling, Vespa,” Paige said.

Vespa looked down, to see her hands quivering on the handles of her Busters. She gritted her teeth and holstered the both of them. “Right. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, I’m... I guess I’m a little shaken.” She crossed her arms, but then gritted her teeth and hissed. The claw marks from Flauclaws’s attack weren’t gone. “I’ll… be outta there in a sec. No worries.”

“Right,” Paige said. “Hurry back.”

* * *

_**Date: August 12, 20XX** _

**_Location: Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs ~ Central Hub_ **

“...stole the _Erosion Key_ , how did they even learn about the Erosion Key, I kept it under wraps as best I could, this is terrible, just horrible, how will I face Glenn now that I know I’ve let someone break into the _highest level security area of this **entire facility**_ , he’ll kill me, surer than anything he’ll drop a bomb from the sky and end me—!”

“Doc!” Mimel yelled, grabbing Gaudile by the shoulders. “Oh my god, take a breath, dude.”

Paige jacked Vespa out, and idly held her PET as she walked back to Dr. Gaudile. It had all happened so fast that she’d hardly noticed, but the doors were unlocked, and most of the scientists appeared to be gone. A few Officials were walking around now, investigating and asking some witnesses a few questions.

And Dr. Gaudile… well, he wasn’t in the best state. “They stole the _Erosion Key_! They _stole_ the _**Erosion Key!**_ _They **stole**_ —”

“What… is an Erosion Key?” Paige asked.

There was a long pause.

“Oh, aha, nothing you need to worry about.” Gaudile did his best to immediately flip back to unworried. “Er, it’s…”

For such a small man, his ability to yank two taller women in for a huddle away from prying ears was quite something. “It’s an activation key for a program I haven’t publicly unveiled,” Gaudile said. “There are three, you see… and the other two aren’t even anywhere near here. It’s unlikely they’d ever obtain all three, but I’m just concerned, you know me.”

“What kind of program?” Paige asked.

“ _That_ , my girl, is a secret,” Gaudile said, before turning away and puffing his shirt up. “Maybe I’ll tell you some day if you take over for Glenn. Er, yes, hello, Officer! What can I do for you?”

Since they were both huddled together, Paige leaned in and showed Mimel the card she’d seen in the box on her PET. “Vespa saw this. What do you think it is?”

“A calling card, definitely. Definitely a calling card,” Mimel said. “I can tell from the artistry. They think they’re hot shit. Was it thunderboy?”

“No, apparently he was working with someone else,” Paige said. “Someone they called ‘K’. I—”

“ _Girls the Officials would like to see you now!_ ” Gaudile yiped from a distance away.

Aside from a few details the lab didn’t allow them to divulge, the questioning went reasonably smoothly. Paige and Mimel were questioned separately, and Paige showed them this ‘calling card.’ The response was, resoundingly, “let the Officials take care of this.”

It was frustratingly far into the afternoon by the time everything was clear, and the Lab was set to close up for the day as soon as Paige and Mimel left. Once she was back in her CopyBot, Vespa stretched loudly, and muttered, “Don’t even get any thanks for my hard work. That jerk kitty hit hard!”

“I’m very, very sorry about the trouble,” Gaudile said, hastily bowing to the entire group multiple times per person. “But, er, shall we?”

At the center of the lab was the entrance to an atrium, sat beneath a single skylight. This atrium was covered in greenery, unlike the rest of the building—grass, flowers, and bushes all sat around a single, massive cypress tree. The sun cast its light over the scene, covering the green with an orange glow.

Paige took a few ginger steps up the slight hill to the front of the tree, and knelt down. There was a photo on the tree of an older man, his pointed beard greying but his long hair looking as good as ever, smiling a bright smile. Below it was a memorial.

_Glenn Markham, 19XX-200X_

_Founder of our Labs. A dreamer to the end, and beloved by his family._

Beneath these words were inscribed messages to Glenn from any number of his old friends. Way down at the bottom was a little scrawl—’I love you, Uncle Glenn’. Paige’s handwriting hadn’t been nearly as good when she was twelve, and the tears hadn’t helped.

Paige laid the bouquet of flowers down next to her uncle’s photo. “Hi, Uncle Glenn,” she said. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around in the past few weeks… I’m heading for Electopia tomorrow. For college.”

The light twinkled off of the photo right off of Glenn’s teeth. “Hehe. Is that supposed to mean you’re proud of me?” Paige paused. “Uncle Glenn… I want to know who I’m supposed to be. I want to figure that out. So, I thought maybe I’d try and follow in your footsteps… at least for a little bit. Um… That’s all, I think. I’ll miss you, but… um, please… I could use your help. In any way you can give it. Okay. I, um… I love you. Bye.”

Paige reached out to the photo and, using her thumb, wiped at a tear reflected in the glass. “Oh—wait, that’s me. Sorry.” She giggled, and then wiped the tear from her own eye.

Standing up, Paige turned to see Vespa standing behind her, a bit of wind from the lab’s air conditioning blowing her hair. (Mimel and Gaudile had left the room to give Paige her privacy.) Vespa’s hands were in her jacket, and she was smiling. “Ready to go?”

“Mmhm,” Paige said, and she nodded. “Let’s go.”

* * *

_**Date: August 12, 20XX** _

**_Location: Redvine Apartments, Apartment 204_ **

Paige’s last night in her home country, despite the frantic day, had been a calming, relaxing one. Vespa and Mimel dragged her about to all sorts of places, and they’d wound up splurging on a nice dinner where Vespa got some sort of bizarre seafood dish Paige didn’t even know how to pronounce. They’d stopped by a local shooting range, and Vespa, as usual, had nailed every single shot with pinpoint accuracy so she could show off, flipping her hair like she thought she was such hot shit.

They’d stopped in a park, and Paige had gotten to watch as Mimel made use of her second-foremost skill to ensure for the fifth or so time that Vespa knew what she was doing as Paige’s guard. “Hey, hey, watch the face!” Vespa said, doing her best to catch Mimel’s fist as it careened toward her face.

“Wouldn’t watch the face in a real fight!” Mimel said, delivering another hook that Vespa was just barely able to block. “You gonna worry about your face if Paige is in danger?!”

“What about me?! I might be in danger too!” Vespa caught a body blow, then raised her leg to catch a kick from Mimel that got her to wince and grab her leg in pain. “Ow!”

“They aren’t gonna take it easy on you! I’m gonna be clown shoes next to some of those yakuza or whatever!” Mimel said, grabbing Vespa by the waist for a submission hold.

“I seriously doubt thaaaaaaaa _AAAAAA_!” Vespa squealed, and a few passersby looked at them all funny.

They’d even taken an opportunity to do something Paige hardly got the chance to do. “Now, I am a master at this, of course,” Tundraman said, “but do keep on my hand, Miss Paige. Ice skating is an expert’s sport.”

“Whoa, okay, okay…” Paige stumbled a bit, since the skates on her feet didn’t seem to be nearly as graceful as Tundraman’s. “Okay okay okay. I think I’ve—whoa! Oh ahhhh, oh dear,” and she tumbled onto the railing, using it to steady her balance.

“Using the rail is no shame for a beginner,” Tundraman said, turning to a security camera and winking with his rose displayed for some reason. “I’m sure even Miss Vespa, with her superhuman agility, would have some difficulty with such an action.”

“Thaaaat doesn’t help me,” Paige said, stumbling again. It was cold on the rink! Very cold!

By the time they’d returned to Mimel’s apartment, a bone-weary exhaustion had set into Paige even as Vespa and Mimel continued to argue about the intricacies of the plotline of Cyberwarrior Cybo or something. “A cup of tea, Miss Paige?” Tundraman asked, leaning in. (They’d rented a CopyBot for the evening for his sake.)

“Oh, thank you,” Paige said, nodding and taking a drink.

“Please make sure not to overly stress yourself,” Tundraman said, taking a seat next to her and crossing his legs. “You have a habit of becoming overly stressed, and it might cause deleterious effects to your health.”

Paige giggled. “Thank you, Tundraman. I appreciate it.”

“As Milady’s best friend, it is only natural that I would have a vested interest in your health, as well.” Tundraman tipped his hat. “Of course, you are also a likable young woman, in my estimation. Why, I’m certain you’ll be batting away the suitors willy-nilly once those in Electopia get to meet you—”

Paige lit up, and inwardly thanked that she had finished that gulp of her tea. Both Vespa and Mimel turned from their impromptu arm-wrestling situation to spout “ _What?!_ ”

Mimel launched over and put her hands on Paige’s shoulders. “If you get a girlfriend, you have to introduce me ASAP so I can make sure she’s okay for you. Okay? Okay. Okay? Okay. Are we clear here, Paige?!”

Vespa hip-checked Mimel out of the way. “Introduce me first. Obviously. I will be your wingwoman. No creeps will touch you.” Paige wilted into her tea.

Soon enough, night had completely fallen, and there was no time left to dilly-dally. Vespa roared Chaser to life one more time, and Paige stood by it, looking at Mimel, who leaned against a support pillar. “Hey. You’re gonna do great, okay?” Mimel said.

Paige averted her eyes. “Well, I—”

“Uh, no,” Mimel said, standing up more firmly, “you’re gonna do great. You and Vespa are going to knock their socks off! You two are a great team.”

“W-what does that even have to do with—?”

“Whatever.” Mimel lurched forward, and wrapped Paige in a tight hug. Paige could feel a soft wetness of tears in the crook of her neck. “I’m gonna miss you, pal. Knock ‘em dead. Call me. ‘Kay?”

Paige closed her eyes, and nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

Chaser thrummed. “See you later, Mims!” Vespa waved, as Paige got onto Chaser’s back. “Try not to mess up the place while we’re gone! Don’t hold any crazy parties!”

“I don’t hold parties!” Mimel called back. “That’s my mom’s job, dumbass!”

The flashing lights of the city giving way to the darkness of the highway gave an almost ethereal glow to the same sights Paige had seen coming in. Vespa’s hair flowed in the cool, nighttime wind, and though Paige was behind her, she could swear she saw Vespa looking off into the distance. “Vespa?”

“Yeah?” Vespa said.

“Thanks,” Paige said.

“What for?” Vespa asked.

Paige shook her head. “I’m not sure… it just felt like the right thing to do.”

Vespa snorted. “Yeah. Okay, Paige.”

And the two drove off into the night.

* * *

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Crescent City International Airport_ **

“...Miss… Watters-Markham?”

“Ah, yes,” Paige said, standing up, and hurrying over to the travel desk. A bored travel agent looked up at her, his eyes clearly full of a desire for sleep. “That’s me. Paige Watters-Markham.”

“Says here your name is—”

“Ah, I go by my middle name.” Paige said. She held her breath, her cheeks red with anticipation as the travel clerk poked through a few extra screens.

“...Go through the security scan for me?” The clerk said. “Leave your PET on the conveyor belt, too.”

It only took a few seconds, but as the machine scanned her body for contraband, Paige felt like every bit of anxiety she’d ever felt was suddenly going to explode directly out of her lungs. Vween. Vween. Vween—

“You’re good to go,” he said. “Enjoy Electopia.”

Letting out a heavy breath, Paige grabbed her rolling suitcase. “Alright!” Vespa hollered into Paige’s headphones, once she’d gotten settled back in. “Travel routine, set! Execute!”

Under Paige’s feet, she could feel the vibrations of the planes taking off. She looked out the window, and stared up at the sky. “It’ll be the same sky, huh…” She muttered to herself.

“Quit thinking about the sky until we’re in it!” Vespa chirped. “Hurry up and go! I hear airports are full of crazy stores!”

“Okay, okay,” Paige said, and with one last glance at the sky and the Netopian horizon, she left the window.

* * *

(ED: [NEO VENUS](https://youtu.be/sjc_zWAPsuc), by JANNE DA ARC)

_**On the Next: Battle Network Vespa.EXE!** _

_Oshiete, Venus, boku no tsubasa wa ima mo_

_(Tell me, Venus, my wings -)_

_Mada shiroku kagayai teru ka?_

_(Are they still shining bright?)_

Arriving at Ayanokoji College, Paige settles in and quickly meets a number of interesting characters. A NetBattle exhibition between the new students quickly breaks out, granting Paige and Vespa a chance to show off their skills.

_Goran yo, Venus, me no mae no joukei o_

_(Hey, Venus, was I wrong)_

_Mesashi ta boku wa machigatte nai ka?_

_(to go for the scene before my eyes?)_

However, Vespa seems somewhat disturbed by the appearance of a certain pair of world-saving twins, and she can’t get Flauclaws’s words out of her head. And can Paige really ignore the incident at her uncle’s labs, and the calling card they bore witness to?

_Itsumo chira katta bazuru no yo na kokoro to_

_(While my heart was in disarray,)_

_Miushinai kake teta yume o_

_(like an incomplete puzzle, it was you)_

_Mou ichido ochie te kure tano wa…_

_(who taught me how to remember)_

_Anata deshi ta_

_(the dreams I’d half-forgotten.)_

Is it really something they can just leave to the Officials? With a new country comes new opportunities…

_VENUS, NEO VENUS, together!_

_Hikari no sasu hou he_

_(To where the light points,)_

_Mukai kaze no naka demo kumo o muke te_

_(even if we have to go against the wind and clouds)_

_Boku wa kotae o sagasu darou_

_(I’ll search for the answer,)_

_Soshite anata o hanashi wa shi nai_

_(and I’ll never let you go.)_

Next time, on Battle Network Vespa.EXE:

**Episode 2: The Mystery of ‘K’! Hunt for a Great Thief?!**

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”


	4. Teach Me, Miss Markham! Lesson 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is intended for those not familiar with the mechanics of Megaman Battle Network... or like... anime-only viewers? Do those exist for Battle Network?? I guess that might help them, if they exist.

_**“Teach Me, Miss Markham!”** _

“AtteeeeenTION!”

All five students stood at attention, their faces—when applicable—white as a sheet. “Thank you,” Paige said, smiling sweetly.

Decorated world-saving hero Lan Hikari looked around, and asked, “Wait, um, what are we doing again?”

Megaman, in the seat next to him, rolled his eyes. “There are people reading this story who haven’t played _Megaman Battle Network_ , Lan.”

“Oh! There are?” Lan asked, tilting his head.

“Hey, who said you got to take the title?” Vespa leaned her fist over on her desk and grimaced at the Blue Bomber. “Last I checked this story had _my_ name in the title.”

“Who are you?” Lan asked.

“Sir Hikari, your notes,” Tundraman whispered, passing him a glossary sheet to catch him up. “No doubt a man of your caliber is literate, yes?”

“Oh, thanks,” Lan said. For the next few minutes, he hummed furiously, catching up on the lore of a few more adventures in this timeline—after all, he was still fifteen, since the story hadn’t introduced him in the present day yet.

“While a fair amount of lore was explained enough in the first episode proper,” Paige said, standing at her virtual whiteboard, “I thought it was worth our while to explain some of the more obtuse references. I’ll be filling in as the teacher for this first lesson.” Mimel waved her hand, with a “GO PAIGE” bandana on her forehead. “Yes, Mimel?”

“Does any of this contain, like, our backstory?” Mimel asked.

“No, unfortunately, we’ve left for Electopia, which means you aren’t going to get to show up again for a number of episodes,” Paige said. Mimel wailed.

“Ohhh, I get it,” Lan said, crossing his arms and nodding. “You’re going to go and get a trio of new friends in the new place, right? That’s how it was when I moved.” He turned to Mimel. “It hurts, but don’t worry! Even if she runs into a new friend who’s kind of like you, they probably won’t be as buff as you! You’re irreplaceable! Just like Dex*!”

“*Dekao ‘Dex’ Oyama: Lan’s childhood best friend and rival, and operator of GutsMan.EXE. Currently in a completely different college studying politics,” Paige said. She tapped on her board, and a slide about various Dex facts came up. Everyone nodded and oohed and ahhed.

_**Lesson 1-1: Battle Chips** _

“Who can tell me what a Battle Chip is?” Paige asked, and immediately, Lan’s hand rocketed up. “Lan!”

“A ‘Battle Chip’ is a solidified fast-acting support program for NetNavis,” Lan said. He crossed his arms and nodded to himself. “They’re inserted directly into the PET, and when they do, the Navi temporarily gains access to, and runs, the modification in the Chip. They can be manually developed, or created from data left behind by viruses or battles between NetNavis.”

“Okay, next question, Lan.” Paige said. “How many chips can you select in a round?” Lan’s eyes crossed, and he let out a loud ‘uhhhhhhh’ noise. Megaman sighed and raised his hand. “Hehe. Megaman, why don’t you take over and tell us a bit more?”

“Most, if not all, PETs have the capacity for thirty Chips to be used in regular memory. These thirty Chips are referred to as a Navi’s ‘Folder’. Other than certain chips with active overrides or special Chips that represent a Navi’s innate abilities, these are the only Chips that a Navi can run—while the technology presumably exists to increase that number, standardization of Net Battles meant that society as a whole accepted the thirty-Chip limit,” Megaman said.

“And during a battle?” Paige asked.

“Well, each Navi can load a total of five different Chip programs during a single transmission from their Operator,” Megaman continued. “However, there’s also a limit on what Chips can be selected together. Each Chip has an alphabetical code—if the codes don’t match, with the exception of *-coded Chips which can be freely selected, the only time you can select multiple is if they’re copies of the _same_ Chip.”

“Oh, yeah!” Lan said, pounding his fist into his open palm. “So you select Cannon A _and_ Cannon B! Or WideSword S and AreaGrab S!”

“Are you sure this guy saved the world?” Mimel asked.

“A good Operator is capable of synergizing their folder to fluidly support their Navi with rosters of Chips that don’t conflict with each other,” Megaman concluded.

“Can you give us some examples?” Paige asked.

“Of course,” Megaman said, nodding. “During the episode, you and Vespa discussed your deck. I noticed that several of your Chips weren’t the type that the Navi directly uses, but support Chips such as Asteroid, which is fired from above, or Chips that bolster your Navi’s attacks. Vespa seems to be a very offensively built Navi, and her Buster specs are pretty well-suited for massive amounts of damage to your opponents. In addition, Circle-Gun and the highest-tier variety of the Asteroid chip both come in a C code—and you mentioned Risky Honey, whose second-tier variety can also be obtained in C.”

“That’s correct, Megaman!” Paige said, beaming. “My Folder is a primarily C and *-coded deck. Very astute! What about you, Mimel? What kind of deck do you use?”

“Don’t need ‘em that often,” Mimel said. She shrugged. “I just kinda throw whatever in there.”

“After all,” Tundraman said, tipping his hat and bowing in his seat, “the lot of you have yet to witness my true power.”

“That’s bull!” Vespa shouted.

“I assure you it’s quite true,” Tundraman said. He shook his head, bowing his hat over his eyes. “But I digress.”

_**Lesson 1-2: Navi Elements and the AUTO System** _

“Who can name the four main Elements of NetNavis?” Paige asked, and Vespa raised her hand. “Vespa!”

“Fire, Aqua, Elec, and Wood,” Vespa said. She grinned smugly to herself. “Wood-types represent.”

“That’s right, Vespa!” Paige said. She tapped a slide, showing a four-way chart. “Elements are certain code affiliations programmed into NetNavis that help facilitate their natural abilities and their ability to use certain Battle Chips. Fire beats Wood beats Elec beats Aqua beats Fire—using the right element on elementally-affiliated Navis can be much more effective!”

“For instance,” Vespa said, brandishing one of her Hive Busters, “if I were to use my sick guns on some Electric-element loser, and I’m not naming names here or anything but say he’s shaped like a panther, my shots would be pretty damn good on him.”

Paige frowned, and shook her head. “If Mr. Flauclaws were here to hear you say that, he’d probably be very upset.” Tundraman raised his hand. “Tundraman!”

“We would be remiss to not mention the secondary elements, Miss Paige. I, myself, am an Ice/Slash Navi,” Tundraman said.

“Wait, how do you slash people?” Lan asked, and then he looked down at Tundraman’s feet. “Ohhhh. That’s cool!”

“So it is, Sir Hikari, so it is.” Tundraman was probably grinning, judging by the position of his rose. “NetNavis such as us are also capable of having affinities outside the primary diamond—Slashing, Breaking, Stealth, Recovery, Sonic, Obstacle, and Cursor. Sir Megaman is a non-elemental Navi, and I seem to recall Miss Vespa is Wood and Cursor?”

Vespa spun her gun in her hand. “Damn skippy, boyo.”

“And Navis have about eight Elements on average, right?” Lan piped up.

Paige shook her head. “Navis can only have up to one primary and one secondary element, Lan. Megaman has as many elements as he pleases. He’s an outlier.”

“Oh, right,” Lan said. He nodded. “Wait, what about Elementman?”

“Elementman’s processing was so specialized he couldn’t even speak properly,” Megaman said, and Lan nodded his head and muttered an ‘ohhhhh’.

“Each element of Navi tends to have their own suite of advantages,” Paige said, “but one we should focus on is their relation to the AUTO System. Can anyone tell me what AUTO stands for? Mimel!”

“That’s the ‘Automatic Uplink inTangibility Operation’ System, yeah?” Mimel said. She leaned back in her chair. “You know, it’s like when your Navi flinches and they can’t get hit.”

“Correct!” Paige said. “It could be likened to ‘invincibility frames’ found in many video games. The AUTO System was designed by the progenitor of Net Society, Tadashi Hikari, otherwise known as Dr. Thomas Light. It’s standard-issue in all NetNavis. When taking hits of a certain data intensity, a Navi’s cybernetic body will become briefly intangible and protect them from harm unless otherwise halted by a property of the attack.”

“For instance,” Tundraman chimed in, “my _Hyogetsujin_ cause the AUTO System to activate—however, a blast from my freezing Tundra Storm freezes a Navi in place, preventing it from activating until they are unfrozen. Of course,” he said, turning his head away, “convenient as the AUTO System is, its duration is sadly very limited.”

“That’s true,” Paige said, nodding her head. “Mostly, its function is to prevent a Navi from taking too much damage from a single attack—but if an attack is either too small or too large, it also can’t do anything. There’s very little a Navi can do against having their head slammed into the cyberdirt, for instance.”

“Please tell me you aren’t foreshadowing anything,” Vespa said, with a very defined grimace on her face. Paige smiled. “That doesn’t make me feel better!”

“Its most common usefulness is in standard, regulation NetBattles or battles against wild viruses,” Paige said. “However, certain elements interact interestingly with the AUTO System. For instance—”

“I hate the fuckin’ AUTO System, man,” Vespa said, groaning and rolling her eyes, placing her chin in her hand and staring at the wall. “That’s why I choose not to interact with it.”

“Vespa is a Wood and Cursor Navi,” Paige continued. “Due to loopholes in the System, Wood-elemental attacks never cause the AUTO System to activate, and Cursor attacks can pierce through it even while it’s active, so it’s very rare she needs to stop shooting because of it. That’s part of what makes her such a great partner.”

“Man, who made you all chipper?” Vespa scoffed. She rubbed the back of her head. “I mean, I just roll how I do, you know?”

_**Lesson 1-3: The Navi Customizer and Busters** _

“Our final subject for the day is the Navi Customizer interface,” Paige said. “Who knows what that is?” Lan raised his hand again. “Lan!”

“It’s the interface you use to boost your Navi’s power!” Lan said. “It’s like a puzzle game! You shove them in and make them all fit as best you can!”

“Full marks, Lan!” Paige clapped. “The Navi Customizer came into popular use eight years ago, and hasn’t left. It’s a solid, multi-purpose interface that allows for an accessible level of customization of your Navi’s programming, even for those with otherwise un-customized Navis.”

“Yeah, like Vespa mentioned she had FloatShoes!” Lan said. He nodded to himself. “That’s a useful one! Good taste! I hate it when Megaman runs on poison panels and stuff.”

There was a long moment of silence before Vespa spoke up. “Are you actually paying attention now?”

“The combat tutorial’s over,” Megaman said, “he goes through this about once a year.”

“Sounds rough,” Vespa said.

“You can get programs and compress them with certain codes for heavier loads—I’ve given Megaman a whole lot and totally embarrassed Dex!” Lan said, and he laughed to himself thinking about it. “Super Armor, Air Shoes, Undershirt, Buster Pack…”

“What kind of parameters can you alter with the Customizer, Lan?” Paige asked.

“Oh, plenty! Their HP, the stats of their Buster, you can stop them from flinching, how many Chips you can have ready for selection in a round, I…” Lan trailed off, and scrunched up his face. “Hmm… wait, hold on!” He turned his head to Vespa. “How do you shoot so fast?! I can’t get Megaman to shoot that fast no matter how I try, not with his Buster!”

“What’s it to you?” Vespa looked away, scrunching up her nose.

“Well, I mean, I’m studying this kind of stuff, so…” Lan mumbled to himself. “Well, your Busters _are_ kind of unusual. Standard Navi Busters are sidearms literally, you know, in their arm, right? You’ve got those six-shooters, they’re really cool!”

“Vespa’s Hive Busters are an unusual case,” Paige said. “First, Lan, could you explain how Busters are usually measured?”

“Yeah, sure!” Lan nodded. “Regular Busters like Megaman are measured with three ratings—Attack, Rapid, and Charge. They all go from one to five. Attack is how much damage they do a shot, Rapid is how fast their regular shots shoot, and Charge is how fast they can charge up.”

“Actually, Vespa’s Hive Busters don’t have a Charge function,” Paige said, and Lan’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “When I met her, she’d already broken the function in favor of bumping her Rapid stat further. In terms of the raw measurement, I’d measure her Rapid at about a 9.”

“ _Nine?!_ ” Lan sputtered. “And she has two of them?!” He stood up out of his seat. “Oh man, that’s so cool! And they don’t activate the AUTO System! Who needs charge shots when you have that?!”

Vespa turned around and grinned, standing up too and meeting Lan in a high-five. “Yeah! See?! This guy gets me!”

“Lan, we’re not breaking my charge function,” Megaman said. He sighed. “I have enough trouble as it is.”

“Well, you kind of had something like that once, when you could Beast Out,” Lan said. “But I think hers are faster than that, right? And—oh yeah, you _couldn’t_ charge then! Wow! What was your Charge like before, Vespa?!”

“Y-you don’t just ask a girl that!” Vespa huffed, stomping her foot.

Paige rolled up her board, and stood in front of her five students once more. “That concludes the first lesson! Thank you for listening, everyone. You all get As!”

“What grading curve are you even using?” Mimel snorted. “I’m stupid, man. I don’t _get_ As.”

“Patently false, Milady,” Tundraman said. “As your mother would want me to say, you have an astonishing GPA—”

“Fuck the off, you stupid brat!” Mimel walked over and shook the towering Navi by his shoulders. “I can actually kick your ass now in real life, get ready! You’ve got so many years of this coming!”

“Oh, no!” Tundraman cried, the rose on his shoulder wilting. “I’m sure whatever punishment Milady has for me will last for several episodes—long enough that our return shall be quite noteworthy when it occurs!”

“Bye, Tundraman,” Paige said, and the other four waved to him as Mimel dragged him out of the room to do whatever it was an artist slash pugilist actually did when she was angry. “Not too much of this information will be needed to understand the story itself, but I hope you feel enriched by having learned a bit more about how the Cyberworld operates!”

Then, Paige let out a very, very loud breath, and slumped over onto a desk in front of her, saying, “Ohhhh no, that was too much. Help me. I need to go to sleep. Vespa?”

“Right, right. You did good, Paige, did real good.” Vespa nodded, and hefted Paige up in her arms to carry her bridal-style back to her room where she could finally stop talking to people and putting on her customer service voice. Before she did, though, she leered at Lan and Megaman, and said, “Listen, when we actually run into each other in the story? Kicking your ass, blue boy.” She pointed to her eyes, and then to Megaman, and then walked backwards to ensure Megaman knew very well her eyes were on him. “Gonna whip your ass.”

Megaman pondered for a moment, and then said, “Huh. I guess we all _do_ get a character like that eventually...”

“Huh?” Lan asked, tilting his head.

“Never mind,” Megaman said.


	5. Episode 2-P: A Comedy of Errors

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Den City (Larger Metropolitan Area)_ **

“'Shouldn't take more than ten minutes by foot', he said,” Vespa whined from her spot inside Paige's pocket. “'It's easy to find', he said."

“I swear he said, oh, excuse me, I swear he said...” Paige trailed off, slumping over in front of a line of televisions in a display window.

The Den City Airport let out to the same rough area where Paige's destination was, so she'd received directions from her professor before leaving. The only explanation for how she'd now spent forty-five minutes looking that she had was that the definition of “first left” and “first right” must be different here.

“Ugh, look at this,” Vespa said. “Electrical store! Electrical store! There's so many electrical store!”

“Wait!” Paige threw her arm up, then paused, realized she was throwing her arm up for someone who was currently stuck inside her pocket, blushed, and put it down. “Dr. K said that if there were entirely too many electrical stores, we'd probably gone to Elec Town, and that was too far.”

(Incidentally, seemingly talking to yourself was perfectly normal in this world on account of NetNavis, so nobody batted an eye at the strange Netopian girl yattering to herself.)

“Haha, yeah, probably...” Vespa trailed off, and then there was a mutual pause. “Hey, kinda weird that he calls himself Dr. K—”

“Vespa,” Paige said, pulling out her PET and staring blankly at the woman inside. “My professor has nothing to do with the incident at Uncle Glenn's lab. _Lots_ of people have the initial K.”

“Mm, yeah, I know, I know,” Vespa said, looking away and crossing her arms. “But like—”

“I'm nervous, too,” Paige said, raising her voice slightly higher than usual (which was really impressive given her usual demeanor.) “I don't know where we are, d-do you think we should call Dr. K?”

“Calling the guy on our first day for _directions_?” Vespa scoffed. “Come on, do we wanna look like babies?”

“I'm willing to be a baby if it means I can stop carrying this suitcase around,” Paige said, frowning. Vespa made a noise of realization. (“Hey.”) “I mean, it's not that I can't handle being alone, really, I mean, not that I am alone but you know what I mean, it's just that this area is actually quite cramped and I'm a bit unnerved and also yesterday I might have been present for a terrorist attack or something and maybe I'm a little shaken by that—” (“...Hello?”) “—and I think I need my inhaler, do you remember where I put my inhaler?”

“Mm, one sec,” said the woman in front of Paige, who then reached down to her suitcase, opened up a front pocket to produce Paige's asthma inhaler, and handed it to Paige.

“Oh, thank you,” Paige said, taking a few puffs on it to calm her inflamed lungs before wiping some sweat from her brow.

Pause. The crowds seemed nearly imperceptibly to thin around the two of them.

Paige's eyes went wide, and her skin white as a sheet, as she realized what exactly had just happened, leaping back. “Hi I'm sorry hello do I know you hi?!”

She definitely wasn't Electopian, that was for sure. This woman, whose hand scratched now at a long, chaotic, uncombed mess of hair that straddled the line between brunette and blonde, had the look of someone from somewhere that didn't get all that much sunlight—not quite sallow, but definitely paler than even the indoors-y Paige. She was about Paige's height, but much slimmer (if Paige were feeling a little too nosy, she might raise concerns about this woman's diet.) There were bags beneath her blue eyes that didn't quite seem to match the cute little dusting of freckles above her nose. She'd come out in a greying labcoat and red sleep clothes, though the red scarf around her neck was obviously well taken care of. And...

Yeah, that was a cup of coffee. The woman took a drink, with a sort of casual lack of concern for the immediacy of social decorum, before lowering her mug, opening her eyes again, and saying, “So do you ogle everyone you meet for the first time?”

That got Paige to turn bright red and Vespa to yell, “Hey, what's going on?! What's happening to my precious dynamic?!”

The woman snorted, and let out a cracking, hyena-like laugh with her head down toward the ground. “I'm kidding. Mostly.” She looked back up, her smile having already turned back into a frown. “You're Paige Markham, right? First year, just starting at Ayanokoji, majoring in Net Science, been partnered with the NetNavi Vespa.EXE for four years now.”

“Um, excuse me? I'm becoming increasingly unsettled?” Paige said. “Who are you? How do you know who I am or where I put my inhaler?”

Another long, long swig of coffee. “How many questions was that?”

“What?” Paige asked.

Another laugh, but then the woman straightened up her posture, stretching a little as she did. “Audrey Longhener. I've been helping out Dr. K for a while now, so I picked up a few things. Plus you wouldn't shut up on the plane.”

“T-the plane?” Paige asked.

The two of them were walking, now. “The plane. The one you got off of,” Audrey said, and she pointed into the sky. “I was sitting behind you.”

Paige blinked, then her eyes darted toward her suitcase. “Ohhh.” She nodded. “What a coincidence.”

“And I couldn't sleep the whole time, planes are ass for my circadian rhythm, so I had to listen to every word you both said to each other the _whole time_.” When Audrey said this, Paige had the urge to profusely apologize, but Audrey raised her hand preemptively to stop her. “If it wasn't you, it would've been something else. Anyway, Dr. K asked me out for something around here anyway and I _saw_ you, so.”

“Right after you arrived from a trip?” Paige asked.

“The doc's swamped with paperwork 'cause of the _other_ new student in his course,” Audrey answered, scratching at that mane she presumably called 'hair' again. “I'd hate for the old man to tear all his hair out.”

“And what about DopplerMan?” Paige asked. “Is he assisting Dr. K with his work, or...?” Audrey could only give a shrug. “Well, thank you, Audrey. That's very kind of you.”

“I guess,” Audrey said. “I—”

“ _Sharo_ , right?” Vespa said. Everything suddenly ground to a halt. “I mean, I've been collating data, and with the lack of sun, I mean. Gotta be from Sharo, right?”

Thankfully, Audrey's paper cup was empty now, so when she crushed it, nothing came spilling out. “First things first. I was speaking. Don't interrupt me. Second, you must be a real idiot if you think it's decent to announce to the world that you've been playing an internal guessing game as to something you could've just _asked_ someone, especially something as inane as _that._ ” Audrey took in a deep breath through her nose. “Third, yes, yes, I am. Do you want me to make it more obvious next time? Maybe wear an _ushanka_ for you?”

“Oh, well, uh,” Vespa said, having been placed back in Paige's pocket after that little rant. “I was just... curious.”

A high male voice from the pocket of Audrey's labcoat said, “Boss, you've really gotta take a chill pill.”

Audrey sneered at nothing.“I can take a chill pill once I've gotten my four hours. Since when are you part of this conversation?” She looked away, scoffing. “I thought that these sorts of errands were too _boring_ for you.”

“Oh, are you _still_ working on that?” Audrey's Navi groaned, and then a slight noise signaled the voice being cut off. Audrey staggered over to another roadside coffee stand to get herself another cup of hot, black pain.

“Are you _sure_ she isn't gonna knife us?” Vespa stage-whispered.

“Don't be rude,” Paige said, frowning down at Vespa. “You know people need their sleep. I mean, Mimel—”

“Haha!” Vespa squeaked. “Please don't remind me!”

Eventually, the coffee managed to get Audrey well enough awake to help her drag Paige over to... an old-style arcade. Paige's eyes were wide, and she took in a little gasp. “They still have these here?”

“I _know_ ,” Audrey said, with a cock of her head. She walked in, throwing open the double doors, and took a look around. The flashing lights of the various games on offer were a level of visual chaos that dwarfed even Paige's deepest looks around her uncle's labs... or Mimel's apartment. The noise level was astonishing, too. Paige wished she hadn't buried that train model so deep in her suitcase.

“Um, why are we here?” Paige asked over the din of sound, once Audrey began walking somewhere or another in this labyrinth of folly. In response, Audrey jammed a thumb in the direction she was going. Paige squinted, and looked over to find what looked like... a karaoke machine? “To sing karaoke?”

“Look down,” Audrey said, and Paige did so. In front of the karaoke machine was the one currently operating said machine—a small girl with vivid silver hair tied up in a pair of cute little buns, in a short-sleeved pink sundress. A bell hairclip on her right fringe was probably unnecessary, then, to make her stand out, given her location... but it sure was cute.

The girl was singing her heart out, throwing herself into each note. As Paige got closer, she could hear it clearer and clearer, above the cheers of a crowd she'd attracted. “— _narazu aru hazu yo! Tashikana ai datte, motomereba itsu ka wa mieru kara!_ ” To be honest, with the sparkle in her bright golden eyes, and the force of the motions she went through, she looked for all the world like one of those Electopian idols that Mimel occasionally talked about... albeit a bit shorter. “ _Ima dou natte yukou to, ima unmei ni sakarau, tsuyosa wo..._ ”

“ _ **Shinjisaseteeeeeeeeeeeeee!**_ ” She cried out, along with the crowd she'd developed. Paige didn't know the song, but Audrey gave a half-hearted effort at it, as well. ' _We've Got an Unbeatable Love',_ huh? Paige made a mental note to look up that song later.

Once the song had completely stopped and the young girl had obtained her near-perfect score, to cheers from the crowd, she pumped her fists and looked to all the world to be ready to continue before Audrey came up and placed her hand on her shoulder. “Bweh?!” the little girl looked up and jumped. “Audrey?!”

“What is it with me and people _jumping_ today?” Audrey snorted, and gave a toothy grin to one side of her mouth. “You gotta pay better attention, Compa.”

Paige walked up behind her, poking her head up cautiously behind Audrey's shoulder to get a better look at the young girl. “Compa?” she muttered. “Um... as in—?”

Looking for all the world like she'd just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Compa closed her eyes, put on the brightest smile she could, and put her hands behind her back. “Um, it's really funny seeing you here, Audrey! Super funny! When did you get back from Electopia? I—”

“Compaaaaa,” Audrey said, and Paige could sense a certain crackling energy within that mane of hair of hers. “I haven't gotten any sleep in twenty-four hours. Think about how worried you're making Dr. K that I agreed to come out here, sweetie. How terrified he must be, beside himself that his adorable little daughter is out in the city where ne'er-do-wells could come to get her at any time. Are you in your rebellious phase now, Compa? I never went through one, so I can't really relate, but I understand the concept. I really do. But—”

“Heeeelp!” Compa squealed, opting to hide behind Paige. “She's gonna delete me!”

“I-I don't think she's that powerful...” Paige stammered, but when Audrey turned her head, though she was smiling, for a moment the fear of God was struck in Paige so badly that she, too, believed that Audrey Longhener could delete a human being.

Thankfully, this situation was able to be moved outside onto the street, where it was much quieter. “Um, so you're Dr. K's daughter, right?” Paige asked, once they'd all been seated on an outside bench. “That Compa?” Compa nodded. “Um... what are you doing out here?”

Compa made a whining little noise and hunched over, putting her chin her hands. “New arrivals week is hard! Daddy always gets all nervous, and it makes me nervous too, and... awwww...”

Paige nodded, putting her hand on Compa's shoulder. “I understand. Meeting new people is hard... um, or maybe that's just me... er, but you probably shouldn't just go off, it's dangerous out here by yourself for a little girl!”

“I _knowwwww_ ,” Compa groaned. “It's complicated.”

Pause.

“Hi. Welcome to Electopia,” Compa said. Her voice had gone completely flat. “You're Ms. Paige, right? Daddy's been really excited to have you in his class.”

“One of these days,” Audrey scoffed, “one of these days, we are going to have to get this kid a PET.”

Paige started. “Y-you don't have one?!” Compa shook her head. “That's really dangerous! What if you need to contact him? What if—?!”

“I've had this discussion before,” Audrey said, shaking her head. “It isn't gonna work. Not on her, not on him.” Paige wilted.

* * *

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College (Go, Fightin' Fishies!)_ **

It turned out that the one with a poor definition of 'first left' and 'first right' was Paige, in this case. Once someone who actually knew where she was going was at the helm, it really wasn't very far from the airport at all.

At the gates was a by-now familiar face for Paige—a scruffy, silver-haired, middle-aged man in his best SciLab casual, tearing at least a little bit of his not-yet-thinning hair out as he paced frantically around, checking his watch as he did. Audrey whistled. “Get everything done, Doc?”

Dr. Mazda Kamizono looked up from his watch, to see Audrey strutting up with a reluctant, gaze-averting Compa in tow. Paige opted to wait her turn. “ _Compa!_ ” Dr. Kamizono bellowed, running over and nearly sliding onto his knees to wrap his daughter in an almost bone-crushing hug with his burly arms. “Where have you been?!”

“Just Elec Town, Daddy,” Compa said, her voice a little tight from the squeezing. “Come on, you told me that was okay—”

“I told you that it was okay _if you let me know first_ , and _with my permission_ ,” Dr. Kamizono said, letting out a heaving, shaking breath. “Leaving me a note doesn't count as letting me know first. You have to say it directly to my face, alright?”

“What if your head's in a paper?” Compa asked.

“Smack me,” Dr. Kamizono said. “Just...” He let out another breath. “Oh, god, I was so scared...”

As Dr. Kamizono clutched his daughter like she was a piece of driftwood amidst a roiling sea, Audrey looked over and told Paige, “He's like this. About her.”

“I know,” Paige said. “We've spoken. I gathered.”

“Yeah, I just felt the need to say,” Audrey said, shrugging. She cocked her head to the good doctor. “If it's all the same to you, Boss, I'm gonna go take a nap while the Dean talks.”

Switching his mode of conversation came easily to Dr. Kamizono, evidently. He was stern and a little scolding as he looked up to say, “That's disrespectful and likely against the rules, but I know I can't stop you.” Then he got back to crushing his daughter in a hug.

Eventually, even with Paige's lack of presence, Dr. Kamizono realized she was there. He stood and cleared his throat, Compa letting herself recover in the background, and reached his hand out. “It's very good to finally properly meet you, Paige,” he said.

“Likewise, Doctor,” Paige said. She smiled. “I'm sorry about the trouble.”

“No worries. I... probably should've just sent you the location on your GPS or something,” Dr. Kamizono said, and Paige blushed. “How was your flight? Not too troublesome, I hope.”

“No, sir,” and Paige shook her head.

Dr. Kamizono briefly froze, then looked at Paige's pocket. “Compa,” he said, and Compa made a noise. “The Navi inside that PET is not someone you should try to emulate.”

“Hey!” Vespa huffed.

“This is not to say that you're not a lovely young woman, Vespa,” Dr. Kamizono said, “just that I don't think that it would be best for someone of Compa's constitution to try and emulate you or any, ahem, _freewheeling stunts_ you might attempt to perform.”

“Freewheeling stunts?” Compa's ears perked up.

“Of course that's what you heard,” Dr. Kamizono sighed.

Walking through the gates of Ayanokoji College was something Paige had dreamed about. It went much better than it usually did in her dreams. It was a massive campus, despite the college's relative youth—it had been built right next to a river, so there was a variety of greenery on the campus even in the modern era of infrastructure. Students playing hooky from the Dean's speeches mingled about the area, and Paige looked around to scout out the various structures.

The administrative building was tall, very tall, enough so that the three-floor dorms surrounding it were dwarfed. The college's main educational building sat in the center. Eateries, various stores, and even a branch of the national Battle Chip retailer Aster Land had set up shop on the school's premises. “Ah, of course that'd have caught your eye,” Dr. Kamizono laughed, and Paige blushed. “It's no shame to be good at something.” He shook his head. “To be honest, I was very glad to get your application. I was thinking that I'd be lonely this year.”

—Dr. Kamizono was something of a genius in his own right in terms of net science and Navi programming, though nobody was entirely sure what exactly to call his crowning achievement. As such, the courses taught on his level were some of the most difficult to get into, if not the most difficult, in the school's roster. Paige knew this very well, as she'd had to study for weeks, even months, to reach the level of knowledge she felt suitable for passing the extra exams to enter into his level of course work.

“I heard there was only one other pass,” Paige said. “Have they arrived?”

“I haven't seen him, at least,” Dr. Kamizono said, “but that boy will arrive sooner or later. I'm told he's chronically late; his father has complained about it a number of times to me. But he'll be here.” He shook his head. “At any rate, I should deliver Compa back to our home.” He gestured to a smaller building right on the corner of the campus. “Do come see me when you're settled in properly, I have a few things to deliver you.”

"Bye, Paige," Compa said, with a little wave.

“Y-you live on campus, too?” Paige blinked.

“The college was built just by me, and recently expanded its campus slightly. I refused to move,” Dr. Kamizono said, with a casual shrug. “There are worse places to live.”

“Like that island with the skull head off the coast?” Compa piped up.

“We are not going to Skull Island,” Dr. Kamizono chided. Compa wilted, but then took another breath. “ _Or_ Hades Isle. You could trip and fall.”

“Hey, question, why are all of your island names so threatening?” Vespa asked.

Dr. Kamizono took a breath, then had to stop and pause for a moment. “There's Oran, at least.” Vespa nodded inside the PET. Compa—“We're not going to Oran, either, mines have limited air quality.”

* * *

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Auditorium (and let us stand for the alma mater)_ **

“Hmm- _hmph!_ Students of Ayanokoji, lend me your ears!”

It took the esteemed Dean Tanque a few moments to step up the boxes he needed to actually get up to the podium, but the heaviness of his steps made him feel imposing anyway. He reminded Paige, oddly, of a cactus, with his round, short frame, great, pointy mustache (which he felt up... imposingly) and sparkly bald head. “I am proud, again, to welcome another group of students to the college which all would agree can be called the _greatest on Earth!_ Those of you present in this room can feel proud that here you shall achieve an education like no other—”

Despite the sheer booming nature of his voice, Paige wound up tuning him out. “Does he really need a mic?” Vespa asked.

“Um, Vespa...” Paige whispered. She had to say it again to get Vespa to hear. “Now that we're sitting... um, what do you think we should do? About this... 'calling card', we saw.”

“Not sure,” Vespa said, shaking her head. “We've got enough on our plate right now, right?”

“I mean, _I_ do...” Paige said. “You're not enrolled.”

“I'm busy being my fabulous self!” Vespa chided, and flipped her hair with a shining cybersparkle to accommodate it. “Seriously though, I don't know. It's been a long time since I was involved with any _calling cards_... Plus it might be hard to do anything from Electopia. I can get over to their net, but you...”

“'Trouble has a way of following trouble',” Paige said. Vespa blinked. “Oh, um, Uncle Glenn used to say that.”

“Okay?” Vespa blinked again.

“Er, it means that he would probably think that this issue wouldn't leave me alone just because I came to Electopia... that's all,” Paige said.

“Well, if anyone happens to come trying to steal anything of _yours_ , I'll give 'em what for.” Vespa winked and brandished her Busters. “Bang! Zoom! I'll give 'em the Vespa Classic Jackpot Maneuver!”

“The what?” Paige blinked, but motion on the stage prevented her from being able to ask any further.

“—and I am proud to allow Student Representative Akajima a moment of your time, as well! Smart boy. He'll go far,” Dean Tanque said, before stepping off of the boxes and sliding them out of the way himself.

Though the tall young man to the side of the stage had been present the whole time, he only really caught Paige's eye now. His stride was dignified enough to even catch Paige's eye. 'Student Representative Akajima' wore his medium, pitch-black hair in a contoured foxtail. His eyes were sharp, keen, but with an approachable look to his features that prevented him from becoming frightening. He wore a bright red sweater vest over a white shirt, and black slacks—to be honest, he was the most professional-looking person Paige had seen all day.

“Good morning, everyone. I'm Keaton Akajima, and I've been given the honor of serving as your student representative.” He smiled and waved, and a number of the older students loudly squealed, with choice utterances like ' _Keaton-sama, marry me!_ ' ' _Take me away, my prince!_ ' ' _I wanna touch his fingers!_ ' “Haha, now, that's enough of that. Really,” he said, and Paige could tell that last one got to him a little.

Vespa made a humming noise, and now that Dean Tanque wasn't talking, Paige could hear her properly. “What's wrong?” Paige asked.

“This guy... I wonder if I've met him,” Vespa said, scratching her head. “He looks familiar.” Paige shrugged. “Yeah, you probably wouldn't know...”

“Our Net Society is, historically speaking, still in its infancy,” Keaton said, placing his hand on his chest. “The challenges we, as both humans and NetNavis, must face in helping it along to its greatest state are still massive, and no doubt seem near insurmountable. However, it is my firm belief that through cooperation and friendship, we can create a world in the future where we can truly say we are living to our fullest.”

As opposed to Dean Tanque's speech, people were silent for Keaton Akajima. “Here at Ayanokoji, I can't tell you how many times I've seen glimpses of this world I want to bring into existence.” He clenched his fist, his eyes closed. “To those of you who've just arrived, I can only earnestly ask for your cooperation—we are warriors on the front line of a sociological war against the ways of the past! I want to move forward, hand in hand with _all_ of you, into a better future we create with our own hands!”

People began clapping as soon as he said that, though Paige could tell by the look on his face he wasn't quite done. That said, the decorum of Student Representative Keaton Akajima was such that he was able to smile and calmly take the interruption. “A better future...” Paige muttered to herself.

“Who makes a corny speech like that at orientation?” Vespa snorted.

“Well, I thought it was quite nice,” Paige said.

* * *

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ NetSci Dormitory (Canteen opens at 8 AM!)_ **

Paige's room was on the second floor, but the dormitory was, blessedly enough, equipped with an elevator. She crammed herself into it with a few other students, who were probably not so new given their chattering about the new chips over at Aster Land.

“God I gotta get in that CopyBot,” Vespa said, her voice nearly salivating over the idea of the amenities in her room. “God I gotta get in that CopyBot. Bot I godda get in that GopyCot.”

By now, Paige's arms were screaming at her, so once her stop arrived, she ever-so-quickly charged over to Room 212. Though... across the hall, in 224, she happened to see a familiar face slumped against the door, snores coming out of a mass of her hair. Audrey's head was plastered against her door, her PET jacked into the port right under her room number.

Another student was attempting to rouse her awake, a short, sparkly young person in a long-sleeved, green and yellow button-up dress. Their short black hair was curled behind their ears in finely cared-for locks. “M-Ms. Longhener, t-that can't be good for your health! Come on, please?”

“Two years I've been going here...” Audrey sleep-mumbled. “Two years, Eiji. Does it seem fair to you? Doesn't seem fair to me.”

Eavesdropping was impolite, so Paige opted to stop and open her door with the key she'd been given. This would've been a fantastic plan... had it worked. “Eh?” But it didn't. Her door's card scanner beeped red at her. “Um...”

“Look,” Vespa said. “Over there.” Paige had to take a moment to figure out where 'over there' was, but she found it—a poster on the wall. The department head's Navi was present on it, and it displayed, “ **A Message from Battalion.EXE!** ”

Here is what it read.

_Hey, Kid's! In order to get in, you're gonna have to show us how good you are at NetBattling! Jack in next to your door and find an “Aptitude Checker” around the dorm's network to activate your key! Happy Hunting!!_

Paige had to take a moment, even after reading the poster, to register what it had said. “...T-this is a joke, right?”

“ _Two years, Paige!_ ” Audrey suddenly shouted at her from across the hall, clutching her hands tight. “Two years I've been going here and they still make me do this shit!”

“I—Ms. Longhener—” 'Eiji' said, then let out a sad little sigh. He reached up to grip his collar. “I-I'm very sorry...” Based on the look of his face, he was seriously distressed, so Paige stepped a bit closer. “Um, eh?”

“Is something wrong? Er, besides the obvious, I mean,” Paige said. (In the background, Vespa rolled her eyes and said 'here we go again'.)

“Oh, no, please, don't concern yourself...” Eiji said, raising his hands before bowing. “I'm very sorry to worry y—”

“Eiji's Navi is halfway across campus, I'd wager,” Audrey said, raising her finger, and Eiji started. “He can't even get in. He's not gonna call his Navi back because he thinks she might be busy. He needs someone to do his test for them, since they never even bother checking these things as long as they've got the ID they need.” If Paige hadn't caught that Eiji's eyes were brown before, she probably wouldn't be able to ever again, given how tightly he was scrunching them up now.

“M-Ms. Longhener—” Eiji sputtered.

“Oh, of course!” Paige said, giving a soft smile. “I'd be happy to help. I'm Paige Markham, I just started here. I'll be right over as soon as we've found one.”

“Er... t-thank you so much,” Eiji said, blushing and looking down.

“Let's go, Vespa,” Paige said, hurrying back over to her door and producing her PET.

“You're lucky I'm tough, pretty boy!” Vespa called over to Eiji. “Double duty isn't something just anyone can do!”

“Yes, I'm aware, thank you very much.” Eiji said, bowing profusely to someone who couldn't even see him.

_“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”_


	6. Episode 2-V: Pulling Double Duty

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Dorm #5 Inner Network (no accidents since 20XX-3!)_ **

Thundering downward in a beam of light, Vespa bent her knees to absorb the shock of the landing. As soon as she finished materializing, she sprung back up, throwing her arms wide, to yell, “Saaaaaaaaafe!” A few passing Navis gave her strange looks, but it was their loss for not understanding proper dramatic entrances.

This network's pathways were slightly translucent, so Vespa could make out a central structure connecting them all that seemed to resemble a six-barreled gun, for... some reason. At the edges, where Vespa had landed, was an outer ring that connected to several sturdy social areas for NetNavis to gather, but getting to the center required an obnoxious amount of navigation.

“What am I even looking for?” Vespa said, rolling her eyes and getting to puttering forth.

Paige wasn't answering, but from above, Audrey's voice came in through Vespa's connection. “If it's anything like the last billion times I had to do this, you're looking for some green and red Navis with guns for heads.”

“Why do they have guns for heads?” Vespa looked up to ask. She didn't have to see Audrey to hear that shrug.

Vespa's vision was pretty good, so it didn't take her long to spot a guy with bulky feet, green and red coloring, and a gun for a head marching back and forth by himself along a pathway... but of course someone immediately slid in front of him and started engaging him. Hm. She materialized a targeting visor over her head, and turned on targeting mode, scanning around for anything out of place, and...

Well, there were two identical reticles locking on to things _beneath_ a platform on the edge. That was pretty curious, so Vespa turned off her visor and started running over there. Of course, that involved running along a complicated network of—

“ _Yoink!_ ” There was a blue chunk of Mystery Data on the path, so Vespa placed both of her Busters downward and blasted backwards to launch herself off of the ground and over the head of another Navi walking on the path, rolling onto the ground and picking it up. When she opened it up, though, she grimaced. “Ugh, just a SubMem. You can have this,” she said, putting it back down on the ground, then placing her gun back down to launch herself again now that she remembered that she could do that.

“The hovering wings are pretty neat,” Audrey observed. “You make her yourself?”

“Oh, um, no,” Paige said. “I don't actually know her father's name... she just complains about him sometimes when she's talking about her backstory.”

“Mm,” Audrey said. A few other Navis on the pathways gaped at the crazy woman using her guns to skip around like an idiot, but Vespa paid them no heed and soon arrived at the platform she'd been aiming for.

“Look at you, Private Chronoforce!” A member of Battalion's... Battalion said, saluting to the Navi in front of him. “You passed with a Busting Rank of [5]! When you grow up, you're probably gonna be a really great NetBattler!”

“Mmhm,” said 'Chronoforce'. This one was an odd one—most of his hard, armored chassis was a dark blue, but parts of his torso were 'wrapped' in a grey binding that almost resembled a human straitjacket. Tiny, ice-crafted arms stretched out of his torso like a T-Rex's, and were currently dealing with a miniature game window. His heavy legs, resembling castle towers with their square, blocky construction, sat to the sides of a tail-like jet fixture, and his head, tall and pointed, was faceless aside from two small slits with glowing green eye-lines inside. Vespa wondered if you could stab someone with it... maybe he was supposed to be like a swordfish?

Vespa strutted up, looking around, then leaned over Chronoforce's... 'shoulder' to look at his window. “Whatcha playin'?”

“Wanyadora,” Chronoforce said. “My cats need feeding.” Vespa nodded. That was pretty important.

“Oh my _fucking_ god,” Audrey suddenly belted out, and Vespa could hear her run back to her PET. “You're done and you didn't tell me?”

“Eh,” Chronoforce said, with a shrug that moved his whole body. “You'd have found out eventually.”

“Even— _I need sleep, you lazy sack of fish data!_ ” Audrey spat.

“You got it, Boss,” Chronoforce said, as he took initiative like a boss and made _absolutely no_ moves to leave. He looked up at Vespa. “...Yamaha, right?”

“Vespa,” Vespa said. “Can you stab people with that head?”

“Yup,” Chronoforce said. “I kept the spot warm for you.” _Then_ he jacked out, and as soon as he did, two more members of Battalion's Battalion (surely that wasn't the actual name, right?) climbed up from a position at the edge of the platform, being that they'd been hanging off the side the whole time.

Vespa made a noise of understanding, putting her hands on her hips and nodding. “Aww, what a nice guy!”

_Wham._ “There she goes,” Paige observed. “Sir?”

“Present!” That sounded like a bow. “Um... thank you again. I-I really don't know how to repay you.”

Vespa grinned. “One hundred thousand Ze—”

“Please, don't worry about that,” Paige said. “Could I get your ID?”

After deflating, Vespa went over and interacted with the Navi on the left. “Afternoon, Private! A new recruit, are you? Give us your operator's name and student ID so we can get started!” Vespa cleared her throat.

And... “Eiji Kikuchi, second year, nurse's assistant. ID 2410974.” Vespa rattled it off after him.

After a moment to digest, the Navi's cartoonish eyes went wide, and he staggered back, nearly falling off of the platform. “L-Lieutenant Cinnamon?! My apologies for not recognizing you after your glow-up, ma'am! I-I'll begin the test posthaste!”

Vespa spun on her heels to face a row of viruses appearing behind her—the pointy bottoms giving way to silver viruses with small flames on their tops mimicking knights' helms. “S-Swordies?!” Eiji exclaimed. “I'm no good at those.”

“Vespa, Sensor loaded!” Paige said. Vespa received the sent data, and snapped her fingers on her left hand while drawing her right Buster. A KillerEye virus, just like she'd defeated in the labs yesterday, appeared in front of her, and the front Swordy raised its blade to attack.

Ordinarily, these had a wait time, but Vespa had very little patience for things like that, so she aimed her Buster at the back of the virus and fired, kickstarting its attack. A piercing electric beam launched from the Eye, catching the Swordy in front mid-attack and blasting its two compatriots in the back before they could move. All three went poof in the blink of an eye.

“Incredible work!” The Navi administering the test saluted, and was that a tear in his eye? “You passed with a Busting Rank of [S]! You've become a credit to the team!”

“O-oh!” Eiji exclaimed. “Ah, thank goodness. I'm in your debt, Misses—um, Markham, you said?”

“It's really no problem at all,” Paige said, and Vespa knew well that tone—it probably meant Paige was inwardly conflicted about being praised for something she didn't entirely realize was not something everyone would do. “Oh, but... who _are_ these Navis? Do they work for Mr. Battalion?”

“They _are_ Mr. Battalion, actually,” Eiji said, and while Paige sounded like she understood, that just made Vespa more confused. Seeing off that one, she now stood in front of the other. “Um, as I understand it, his base programming was fragmented in an attack on the Mother Computer some years back, so it became easier for him to operate in multiple instances that conferred with each other—”

Vespa leaned forward, and tapped this other Battalion on the head. “You there, chief?”

After a moment's pause, Battalion stood at attention. “Afternoon, Private! A new recruit, are you? Give us—”

“Paige Markham, first year, NetSci, ID 3738800,” Vespa said. She looked up. “Is this gonna confuse him later?”

“Just that one,” Eiji said. “There are ninety-eight more of him, so he should be alright... I hope.”

“Private Vespa, is it?” Battalion said, giving Vespa an askew glance. “Well, we'll see what a fresh young trainee like yourself can give.” He crossed his arms, which looked a bit too clunky to keep that up for long. “But do you want it mild? Spicy? Caliente?”

“What?” Vespa blinked.

“I'm hearing _so hot, it'll leave you bawling like an anime fan on prom night!_ ” Battalion leaned in entirely too close, and the muzzle on his head pressed into Vespa's nose. Vespa rolled her eyes, raised her hands, and muttered a, 'whatever floats your boat, chief.' Turning on her heel again, this time, four viruses materialized in.

Two of them, in front of Vespa and to her right, were red, inverted shrimp-shaped things with twin gatling guns—Red Hubcaps, they were called. In the corner of the stage was a white box-shaped virus, a Windbox, which Vespa already felt pushing her back with its powerful winds. Finally, a green tank on small treads—a Catack—began to slowly advance toward Vespa from the backline of the enemy's position.

Being in the middle of a fight meant that automatic barriers were set up such that Vespa couldn't fall off, but being pushed toward the back of the platform still didn't feel good. The Hubcaps warped next to the Windbox to guard it as the Catack slowly pushed forward, so when Vespa tried to fire upon the Windbox, a Hubcap absorbed it instead. Because of the Catack and Windbox's relative position, the Hubcaps twisted into a relative V pattern around the Windbox when they warped toward it, but they now began to dash forward to fire upon Vespa. “Paige?”

“On it,” Paige said, as she slotted in a few chips. Vespa smirked to herself, and placed her Busters downward to launch into the wind again before activating a DashAttack to bolster her momentum. Careening above the Hubcaps' shots, she got to the top of the Windbox's effective range, and fired again to land directly on top of the Windbox. When the Hubcaps automatically warped back to their homes, she placed her Busters on the back of their heads and fired, eliminating them in short order.

From there, she looked down. “Hey, little buddy,” she said, jumping off the Windbox, “you mind giving me an assist?” Windboxes were classified as Obstacle-style objects, so it didn't harm Vespa in the slightest to pick it up with a SuperArm Battle Chip, briefly encasing her arm in a much larger fist. With a sparkle in her eye, she yelled, “Go long!” and hurled her friendly little box at the remaining Catack, which was unfortunately never programmed to turn around and not fire directly at the now-vacant back wall. Just as it fired, the Windbox hurtled into it, and both viruses went careening toward the back barrier, ramming into it and vanishing in a puff of data.

The sheer awe in the noises Eiji made were enough to get Vespa to give a victory pose, winking for the camera. “Thank you, thank you,” Vespa said, “you're too kind, really.”

“Impressive work, Private Vespa!” Battalion said, standing at attention. “You passed with a Busting Rank of [10]! Just a little bit of growing on you and—”

“Not S?!” Vespa ran over and grabbed Battalion by the shoulders. “Did you see how cool my moves were?!”

“That was an illegal entry into the opponent's field! Had to dock you a point for that,” Battalion said, cool as a cucumber despite how hard he was being shaken. “I recommend you do not shake me, or else I might detonate!”

Vespa jumped back. “You can detonate?!”

“A true warrior knows the importance of a self-destruct button, Private!” Battalion said. Vespa attempted to digest this bit of wisdom, but failed. “I'll give you and your operator access to your quarters! Glad to be working with you!” And he was off.

“He seems nice,” Paige said, “this whole thing aside.”

“Why would he be able to explode?” Vespa said, putting her head in her hands. “Who just—wait, I guess if he has ninety-nine bodies... do you think he could just like, throw himself at somebody? Just blow up all of his bodies on people until he wins?”

“We're jacking out now, Vespa,” Paige said, with a little chuckle.

“Dude, what if I had ninety-nine bodies? I'd have... a hundred and ninety-eight guns! I could shoot so many bullets! I—”

* * *

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ NetSci Dorm (colloquially referred to as 'Battalion's Playhouse', by Battalion)_ **

Pointedly ignoring whatever it was Vespa was talking about, Paige pocketed her PET and bowed to Eiji, who was standing there with his eyes wide and hands clasped. “I hope you have a good day, Mr. Kikuchi. This suitcase is very heavy, so...”

“O-oh, please don't let me hold you up, Ms. Markham.” Eiji bowed back. “It was very nice to meet you, but—”

The conversation was interrupted by a piercing ring from Eiji's PET, which got the boy to seize up, a single strand of his hair poking up off of his head. “Eh? Oh, no! N-no time to speak! I'm sorry to cut this short—” and Eiji hurried into his room “—but I've really got to go, there's an emergency—” and then he was out again “—very important, otherwise I might never learn anything, thankyousomuchforyourhelpI'msorrypleaseenjoytherestofyourdaygoodbyeMissesMarkhamandVespa!”

Paige blinked a few times. “He can run... very fast.”

“How much cardio you think he does?” Vespa asked. “Do you think he's jacked under that dress?”

“I'll ask later,” Paige said, and entered into her room.

Accounting for the increasing independence of Navis who enjoyed CopyBots, even this single room was large enough for two people. A freshly-made bed, fluffy-looking sofa, shelves, a walk-in closet, and a fairly extensive tech rig already present, even though Paige knew very well she'd be getting that, made her feel slightly awkward. She shrank back out of the room a touch. “Um... a-are you sure this is mine?”

“The key opened the door, didn't it?” Vespa said, and Paige gulped and clenched a fist, walking into her own room. The nervousness sank away the moment she was able to put down her suitcase and flop onto the bed... and speaking of CopyBots, there one was in the closet, provided for Vespa's use.

Such were there suddenly two women on the bed and not just one. “Oh my god,” Vespa said, breathing deeply, facedown, into the sheets. “Are we sure this is a public facility?”

“As far as I know,” Paige said, her voice sleepy and jetlagged.

“You wanna go out and explore a bit?” Vespa asked.

“In a minute,” Paige said.

“A girl after my own heart,” Vespa mumbled.

'A minute', as it turned out, meant two hours, which Paige realized with a start when she woke up from her impromptu nap. “Vespa?” she murmured, reaching her hand over to nudge Vespa awake. Of course, that required Vespa to not already be awake, having switched into casual, leaning back on the bed and reading a book. “You woke up first...?”

“I know, it's a miracle,” Vespa said, idly flipping through the pages of _Things that Happen in the Fast Lane_ , a thriller novel she was particularly fond of. “You know, the author of this one is Electopian. Wonder if we could go visit his house or something,” she said with a snort.

“I'm sure he gets enough visitors,” Paige said, shaking her head to wake herself up. “Are you sure you're alright?”

“Why wouldn't I be alright?” Vespa asked.

“You've been crying,” Paige answered, and Vespa lowered her book—sure enough, her eyes were red, and her face was a little sticky. “I knew it.”

“Ugh. Who gave you permission to know me that well?” Vespa huffed, turning away. Paige came closer to give her a hug. “...Thanks.”

“A nightmare?” Paige asked, and Vespa nodded. “Mm.”

—When you lived with Vespa.EXE, and _especially_ when you sometimes slept in the same bed, you simply got used to the fact that occasionally, she would wake up screaming her lungs out, her eyes full of some sort of wordless horror that she didn't like to explain, from the life she lived before she'd become Paige's Navi. And that usually meant—

“What are you craving?” Paige asked. (One of the many questions Paige had to hypothetically ask Vespa's creator was why on Earth she was programmed to feel _hunger_.)

Vespa gritted her teeth, but based on the way she was twitching, she was thinking. “You think they've got any burgers around here?”

* * *

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College (several establishments now hiring! Inquire within)_ **

They did. No matter how long Paige knew Vespa, the sight of her tearing into a burger was never any less startling. Paige also found herself slightly jealous of the fact that Vespa could nosh on two burgers _and_ a serving of fries and yet never gain any weight, on account of being made of data.

“Man,” Vespa said, downing a massive swig of some soda or another, “this hits the spot.”

They'd just managed to precede the dinner rush, so things were getting noisy fast. “So,” Vespa said, “how was I out there? Rad, right? We totally deserved an S, right?”

“Mr. Battalion seems like he's a bit of a stickler for the rules,” Paige said. “But I'm not a scorer or anything... I wouldn't know.”

“You deserve the S too, Paige! You're an important part of this duo!” Vespa said, leaning in over the table and placing her hands on Paige's. “If it weren't for you... I'd be nothing but a pretty face and a pair of guns...” Vespa looked away, her hair fluttering in a faux wind.

“Thank you, Vespa,” Paige said, and she looked away and blushed. A buzz in her pocket alerted her to a message, and she opened up her PET to check. “Oh, it's from Dr. K...”

_To Paige,_

_I thought you should know that a number of the Net students tend to gather around this time in the Community Center for an impromptu series of exhibition matches among each other. If you're not busy, it might be something for you to do—Vespa does seem awfully bloodthirsty._

_-K_

“Where did he get this impression of me?” Vespa snorted, before ripping her second burger in half.

* * *

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Community Center_ **

“And that's game, ladies and germs!” As soon as Paige opened the door, she was blasted by a small crowd's worth of cheers and the microphone-boosted voice of an announcer. “Looks like raising Pandamonium just wasn't enough to take on the unadulterated speed of Buster Rod G! If you ask me, it was a bad matchup, what do you think?”

“Well, Scoops,” said a second announcer (and Paige was scanning the crowd, who were huddling around an Open Battle table which was displaying a massive panda-shaped Navi down at the feet of a monkey-themed Navi who brandished a staff, for these announcers,) “personally, I think Pandamonium and his operator should've realized that Buster's superior agility means that you can't beat him in a platforming game. There's only one way to go with guys like him unless you can outspeed him, and that's raw power. Pandamonium just needs to play to his advantages more.”

“And how do you think we'd do, buddy?” The first announcer said.

“Oh, I could outspeed him any day, you kidding?” The second announcer laughed.

—Ah, there they were! They were to a side, at an emcee's desk, and Paige actually first was drawn to that end of the area by seeing Dr. K and Audrey standing to the side, behind them. It was a human and NetNavi pair.

The first announcer's voice belonged to a short young woman, who was standing up to slam the table. The brown newsboy cap, pen behind her ear, and black-rimmed, square glasses gave Paige a definite vibe, though she wasn't quite sure what that vibe was as of yet. Her fairly spiky short hair and currently wide grin definitely gave her a chaotic energy of some sort, though. She wore a white button-up shirt, brown suspenders, and brown pants, and based on what Paige could tell, she was actually fairly muscular under her clothes. Oh, was that a camera around her neck? It looked like a camera.

As for the NetNavi, at the moment, he was clad in a darker brown trilby hat and trenchcoat, though the back of the coat had slits for folding wings that were currently retracted. He was visibly metallic, with sunglass-like lens that could flick over his small eyes, and a fixture like an underwater breathing apparatus where his mouth would've gone. He was primarily tan, with blue trimmings, but as for his specs, Paige wasn't sure as of yet.

Hoping not to be seen, Paige sidled past the crowd and over to where Audrey and Dr. K were. “Ah, Paige.” Dr. K nodded to her. “Good to see you.”

“Um, right.” Paige's head turned to Audrey. “Didn't you need sleep?”

“I got what I needed,” Audrey said, waving her hand around. “I wasn't gonna miss this chance, y'know.” She stared at the table, where another battle was beginning, with a keen eye, scanning the participants.

With a proud smile, Dr. K closed his eyes and nodded. “Quite right. We are scientists, after all. Data is important.”

“The type to stand back and watch, huh?” Vespa took her place on the wall, too, and shrugged. “Whatever you say, Doc. But what do you need this for?” She asked, looking at Audrey.

Audrey smirked. “Who knows? The time might come that I need to fight any number of these people. Not like Chronoforce is going to do me any favors.”

“I'm sure he has plenty of talent hidden in there somewhere,” Dr. K cut in. “He's definitely very well-made. Oh—”

“And that is _it_ , everyone! What a way to go!” The human announcer called out. A blue beetle stood over a pink one, his pincers pulsing with a powerful electricity. “The Anchus brothers' grudge match has come to a close in record time! I never get tired of seeing these two in action!”

“Personally,” the NetNavi said, “I think Herculious should be more conscious of the fact that Kuwagust is impervious after he's successfully grappled something. Laying down those RockCubes could've been a good idea against any other grappling Navi, maybe, but Kuwagust? Nah. They should stick to tag teams.”

“Nah, nah,” the human said, “it's totally up to misjudging the vertical let on Kuwagust's projectiles. Herculious needs to learn to jump better. That's gotta be it.”

“But he's getting closer,” the Navi said.

“Without a doubt! And I hope you'll continue listening to Radio Hanasaka when the next grudge match comes up!” The human leapt out of her seat and pumped her fist. “Alright, who's next? Any contenders? I know we're a little late in this little contest, and—” Then, something horrifying happened. She _swiveled around_. “Audreyyyyy! You promised me a good match for that last bit of intel, you remember that?”

“I sure did,” Audrey said, crossing her arms and closing her eyes against the wall. “Gimme a break, Scoops. Chronoforce is busy with Wanyadora or something.” At some point, though, her arm had snaked behind Paige on the wall, and suddenly Paige found herself being pushed forward. “Here's my representative,” she said with a smirk.

Suddenly, Scoops seemed to slide in from off-frame into Paige's vision, right in front of her, brandishing her pen. “Oh ho ho ho ho. One of Dr. K's new guys, huh?” Yup, definitely muscular. Without a word in edgewise, Paige found herself being pulled up to the stage, to one end of the table. And... there's a microphone? “How you doing tonight, sweetheart? What's your name?”

“Um, P-Paige... Paige Markham,” Paige said, cognizant of roughly too many eyes on her. “I just started... I-I'm in Dr. K's class.”

“Lovely! Thanks for coming out tonight.” Scoops gave a glance around to the crowd, then said, “Hope nobody minds if yours truly takes this one. Stingray!” She held up a white PET. “Let's rock!”

“On it,” said Stingray, who stood up, and then immediately vanished out of his CopyBot into Scoops's PET.

Hurrying over to the other end of the table, Scoops smiled. “Hope there's no problem here, Paige. The name's Scoops Hanasaka, and me and Stingray here'll be showing you the ropes.”

“Oh, no, no problem at all,” Paige said, curling into her own brain on the inside. “V-Vespa...”

Vespa turned her head and glared at Audrey, who raised an eyebrow back. “Make sure nobody steals this jacket, I really like it.” And, poof, she was in the PET, too. “Hey,” she said, once Paige looked at the screen to see her. “Just take a breath and focus, alright? It'll be a lot easier once we're working.”

“R-right,” Paige said, and she gulped, and took a deep breath, and closed her eyes... “Right. Let's go.”

“Now that's what I like to hear!” Scoops said.

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!” “Jack in, Stingray! Execute!”

* * *

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Community Center Open Battle Server_ **

“I can't say I can complain about this,” Vespa said, standing with her back to her opponent. “See, here's something about me: I love showing off! Can't get enough of it!”

“Really?” Her opponent returned the courtesy. “Glad we could give you the chance, then.”

—Tension, cut. The two turned and leapt away from each other to give each other some space. The Open Battle Server was currently set to a plain configuration, having just been repaired of any damage from the last battle.

Vespa's opponent lifted up his hat, revealing the top of his rounded head, and placed it against his chest. “The name's Jet Stingray. I enjoy long walks on the beach, picturesque sunsets, and I'm always fond of a good scoop.”

Stingray replaced his hat, then threw his coat to the wind and unfolded his wings. A jet engine on his back, along with those wings, made clear that he was built for _flight_ , and fast flight, besides. His body was smooth, fluid, and aerodynamic, and contained a number of photo sensors along his legs which presumably were for capturing images. He reached out his arms, and popped open chambers within them, holding red, stingray-shaped bullets. All of them were full, so he was ready to go. “We run the paper, see... I hope you'll pick up an issue sometime.”

“Oh yeah?” Vespa said, squatting down to stretch. “Well, I'm Vespa. I enjoy tearing through the night in a romantic wind with my hog, the occasional thriller novel, and kicking ass.”

“That's pretty bold, isn't it.” Stingray said, tipping his hat downward before tossing it away to where he'd placed his coat. “Well, you seem like you'll move a bit faster than Chronoforce. Good thing, too... didn't wanna fall asleep.” Though he didn't have a visible mouth, Vespa knew a cocky grin when she heard one.

“Ooh, that's pretty tough, huh? The beds here are crazy good,” Vespa said, pulling out her Busters and twirling them along her fingers before pointing them at Stingray. “Seriously, are we sure this is a college?”

“That's what I said!” Stingray responded. “Scoops is a bit too high-strung to sleep, though. More often than not I'll find her in a bush.”

“Hey!” Scoops cried. “That is private information!”

“I didn't say _which bush_.” Stingray responded.

“Really though, thanks for this. Last fight I had ended early and it was super not satisfying.” Vespa looked up. “Paige, we ready?”

“Alright, folks, hope you're ready for a hell of a fight!” Scoops called out, and though she didn't have a microphone, her voice definitely carried naturally. “Your loyal Scoops Hanasaka's live battle report on one of Dr. K's newest is about to begin, with media correspondent Jet Stingray on the scene!”

“I'm ready to roll,” Paige said. She took a breath out. “Let's go!”

“Over to you, Stingray!” Scoops said.

“No offense, but I'm gonna blast you out of the sky, pal!” Vespa said.

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, kid.” Stingray said, his jet engines roaring to life.

**““Battle routine, set!””**

**_““Execute!””_ **


	7. Episode 2-P2: The Strongest Netbattlers

The instant the battle began, Stingray blasted into the air, his speed creating a force of shredding cyber-wind around him that was sure to do Vespa quite a bit of harm if she ran into him. With the halting counter-jets placed in his boots, though, he exhibited an incredible amount of fine control, stopping and starting in unpredictable manners to throw off Vespa's aim.

“This guy's gonna be tough to hit with Chips,” Vespa said, nodding her head up toward Paige. “Try and keep up.”

Just as Paige was about to respond, though, Stingray's boosts took him to a closer-to-ground level, and he leaned himself toward Vespa. “Watch out!”

Vespa rolled out of the way, a bit of her hair getting cut by the blistering full-body projectile she'd just managed to dodge. Stingray caught himself at the edge of the arena and blasted into the air again, having cleared nearly the whole arena in a single dash. “I'm sure you'll agree, ladies and germs, that the _Hienkyaku_ is looking gorgeous as usual,” Scoops said. “Show 'em another trick, Stingray!”

“Don't have to tell me twice,” Stingray said, taking a moment to lay back in the air before directing one of his arms downward. The chambers opened, and three of his red stingray bullets dropped to the ground, small airjets on their bottoms causing them to hover slightly along the ground and beginning their search. They traveled in a straight line at first, but began to curve toward Vespa, who began to step backwards.

“Okay, defensive play is really not my style,” Vespa said. She leapt up, and opted to jump over the seeking shots Stingray had fired to fire upon him himself. He didn't look to be expecting much, but when his speed wasn't fast enough to avoid the near-instant travel time of Vespa's shots, he dodged downward toward the ground and landed for a moment.

“Are Busters that fast even legal...?” Stingray muttered, but he didn't have much time to ponder that question, since Vespa was on the offensive—the force of her gunshots gave her enough airtime to dive over his Ground Hunters, so she had a clean vantage point. He boosted out of the way at an upward angle as Vespa rolled down onto the ground.

“Keep yourself above her, Stingray!” Scoops called out. “Having those Busters above you's not gonna be good for your health.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Stingray said, before boosting into the air again. Vespa tracked him with her Busters to—directly above her?! He let out a roar before performing his dash attack directly downward onto her. Vespa clicked her tongue, and rolled out of the way, only to hear out of the ear he'd just swooped by that he'd just burrowed under the ground. She wasn't going to land fast enough—!

So, that was a direct hit. Stingray burst back out of the ground with a great sound, tackling Vespa and knocking her back. One of her arms stung, but she held the other up and took a few potshots at him as he flew into the air. “So, he escapes straight up or straight down, huh...?” Vespa gritted her teeth.

Paige took a moment to think. “Ah! I see. Vespa, I've got an idea—I'll get the Chips ready! You should be able to figure it out! And...”

Then—over the hole he'd just left, Vespa was faced with her opponent. “Say cheese,” he said, and Vespa was barely able to leap back and shield her eyes in time to dodge the flash of his cameras. “Not a great shot,” Stingray said with a shrug.

The chips arrived. “Ah, yeah, I get it!” Vespa grinned and took one. She leapt above him and pointed a targeting reticle at and behind him, then made a throwing motion with her hands. The explosion of the Magnum beneath Stingray's feet would've caught a normal Navi, but he escaped straight up again. Vespa leaned forward from her strike, in between the two holes she'd just blasted and on top of some unsteady ground. She turned around to see Stingray, who had dashed back down and was ready for another tackle.

Vespa snapped her fingers. “Come at me, bro!”

“With pleasure,” Stingray said, before launching at her. His visor flicked over his eyes, but—“Eh?”

He most likely wasn't expecting Vespa to leap _toward_ him, and even less for her to disappear out of his sight as she did so. He skidded to a halt above the hole again, and looked downward, expecting perhaps to see her below—but no, that was a _Windbox!_

“Stingray, _above you!_ ” Scoops shouted, and Stingray looked up to see a smugly grinning Vespa, having just crested the end of the boost from the wind that Stingray was now blocking. As she began to fall, the end of one of her Busters shifted into the grinning face of a Bomb Corn virus, which opened its mouth and launched a rapid-fire Corn Shot projectile.

It struck Stingray directly in the back, causing him to recoil from the strike and for his jets to sputter. He registered the damage, and while it was salvageable, it probably wasn't going to be for long if—

Vespa began to fire downward, spinning with her Busters pointed downward, striking Stingray repeatedly while his jets were weakened. While he was still able to move, Vespa had the advantage, and he was more subject to the wind from below while that was happening, so it would've taken energy he didn't have. She fell down, flipped over, and—

 _ **Wham!**_ A massive dust cloud flew up as Vespa landed, feet first, on Stingray's back, sending both of them careening down into the hole where the Windbox had sat. “N-no way!” Scoops sputtered. “We got outplayed?!”

Once the dust cleared, Vespa casually hopped out of the hole and dusted herself off a touch. She looked down into the hole to see Stingray laying on the ground, moaning. “You wanna go any more, big guy?”

“Nah,” Stingray said, and he probably would've been gritting his teeth if he had them. “I think I'm good.” He gave a thumbs up. “Nice... nice fight.”

“Cool beans,” Vespa said, giving him a thumbs up back.

* * *

_**Date: August 13, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Community Center_ **

The roar of the crowd was nearly deafening to Paige, who stared down, her hands shaking, at her PET. She let out a small, nervous chuckle, before looking up and around at the crowd, who were cheering for... her? Her and Vespa?

To Paige's eyes, she worried that Scoops looked a little put off, but as soon as the smaller woman jacked Stingray out and ran over, the massive smile on her face dispelled that illusion. “You're a real talent, lady!” Scoops said, grabbing Paige's hands. “Later on, I've really gotta pick your brain, that trick was genius!”

“Oh, no, really, it was all Vespa...” Paige said, looking down and blushing. “She's a really amazing Navi, and...”

When Paige was forcibly dragged over to her corner of the room, Vespa huffing in her CopyBot and enjoying the adoring looks a few people were giving her, Audrey nodded, her arms crossed. “I knew you'd give us a show.”

“I told you she was an amazing NetBattler,” Dr. K said, “did I not?”

“You may have mentioned something along those lines,” Audrey said.

“Well, Audrey, I can't say you didn't give me a good time.” Scoops walked up to Audrey, and the two of them resoundingly shook hands. “You always know how to treat a girl well by proxy! To think the reclusive future Dr. Longhener could make such an interesting friend.”

“Hey, you were the one who decided I was 'reclusive',” Audrey snorted with a little scowl. “I'm _antisocial_. There's a difference.”

“What?” Paige blinked, her gums flapping rather like a fish's.

As Scoops bolted back to her desk to continue commentating on other matches, Paige sat down against the wall. “Friend of yours, huh?” Vespa asked.

“Somehow,” Audrey said with a shrug. She turned her head to Vespa. “Your Busters—those are custom-made, right?”

“Yeah,” Vespa said. “Can't buy girls like these, it takes the programming expertise of yours truly to make such wondrous inventions.”

“Well, didn't you say you just modified them from how your creator made them?” Paige asked, and Vespa deflated slightly.

“A Navi who modified her own tech, huh?” Audrey said, looking down. “I see. Good to know. I'll have to figure out how to kick your ass in case I ever need to.”

“As if you could!” Vespa scoffed.

“She says that to everyone,” Dr. K laughed. “I've seen some of her contingency files, they're rather in-depth... even if she's missing a number of factors on DopplerMan's constitution that would make her plans insufficient.”

“If you say that,” Audrey said, looking up at him, “it sounds like a challenge.”

“Perhaps it is,” Dr. K said, closing his eyes and smiling toward the ground. “In any case, Paige, I knew you were skilled, but that really was quite a show. It'll probably be the second-best fight the people here tonight see.”

“ _Second-_ best?” Vespa sputtered. “As if! Who's gonna be better than us? We kick so much ass.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Dr. K said, and looked down at his PET. A white-armored figure with a straw mask appeared on his screen. “Ah, DopplerMan. Was the message delivered?” The silent figure nodded. “Give him until the rest of the matches are done, then.”

A few more fights went by, Scoops continuing to belt out commentary at the top of her lungs even while Stingray recovered from the whooping he'd gotten, until enough had gone by that nobody was volunteering any longer. “Alright, are we done for the night?” Scoops asked, looking around again. “Going once! Going twice! ...Twice and a hal—”

The double doors were flung wide with a massive crash, the setting sun shining into the room through them. “Wait! Wait, hold on,” said the boy who'd just flung them open, who stopped to crouch over and pant with his hands on his knees. “Hold on... wait...”

Vespa's jaw figuratively dropped. “Oh, you've gotta be _shitting_ me.”

“Do you know him?” Paige asked. Vespa didn't respond.

This young man here was easily recognizable by the blue headband he wore, with his family's symbol, the yellow ring and red insignia, emblazoned upon it. His brown hair fell beneath it, down to his neck, though there were a few idiotic spikes above it that always refused to go down—really, his hairstyle hadn't changed much in the last ten years or so, it had just gotten a bit longer. He was in a white, button-up shirt that had clearly been tracking dirt in the past few hours, being that it was scuffed up and a little torn on his left shoulder, making him look not particularly professional no matter what that nice orange tie tried to say. The black slacks and... and were those _rollerskates?_ Those were seriously rollerskates in the year 20XX. They really didn't help.

“Sorry...” he panted, raising one hand. “Sorry! I had to... you know, the train ran late, there was this guy, and then I tripped and fell, and then I had to do the aptitude test to get my room key...”

Running up behind him, funnily enough, in a pristine white nurse's uniform complete with cap (and punctuated by a few squeals of excitement from within the room,) was Eiji, who himself looked a bit out of breath. “Mr. Hikari, really... You need to calm down!”

“Sorry,” 'Mr. Hikari' said, looking up with a grin and rubbing the back of his head. “I just can't!”

“You're injured!” Eiji tried to protest, but as he reached his hand out, the new arrival ran up to the stage, that goofy grin staying on him the entire time. “...Aww...”

“It's alright, Eiji,” said the Navi within his PET. “Some people really are just like that.”

“You're kidding me,” Vespa said, her face scrunched up. She put her head in her hands. Audrey, too, looked a bit put off. “It's this fucking guy.”

“Really, who is this?” Paige asked, and with no other choice, she looked over to Dr. K.

With a smile, Dr. K said, “This is our _other_ new arrival this year.”

“A sudden, mysterious arrival!” Scoops said, running toward the stage and pulling out her microphone. “And let me tell you, I'm bursting at the seams for this one. Those of us in the know, I'm sure, know who you are, sir—”

“You do?” With his wide, unassuming eyes and dumb grin, this guy was the kind of guy who could be called 'boyish' no matter how old he got, to Paige's eyes. “Wow! People actually know who I am! You hear that, Megaman?”

“It's not that surprising,” his Navi said. “It's gotten more common these days.”

“Oh, uh... Sorry, I get excited for interviews.” 'Mr. Hikari' leaned into the microphone perhaps a bit too close. “Hi! I'm Lan Hikari, and I'll be starting here today in Dr. K's course! I heard we were NetBattling?”

The name made a few more people recognize who was sitting in front of them. “He's something of a local celebrity,” Dr. K said to Paige. “He's more popular back in his hometown, but he's been catching on a bit. I recommend you watch. You might learn something.”

“From this guy? He's a black hole,” Vespa scoffed. Paige wailed.

“Well, sir, sorry to say we seem to have run out of volunteers,” Scoops said. She looked back toward the entrance at Eiji. “Unless Eiji wants to volunteer.”

“E-eh?!” Eiji said, putting his hands over his heart. “You know I'm not a NetBattler!”

Then, though—“You don't need to worry about that.”

An image came up from the Open Battle server, and its display came to life. Sitting on a platform inside was a Navi—his violet eyes and flowing white hair would've given him a fey aura already if the red fox tail, looking like it could twist and shift into a flame at any moment, hadn't already. He was roughly human-shaped, and his armor was patterned after the robes of an old Shinto practitioner in white and red, his arms covered in sleeves far wider than his hands. He was already tall, and the tall, red, heeled boots beneath his baggy pants made him even taller. The flame he commanded twisted itself into the shape of a pair of glowing tonfas on his arms, and he crossed his arms, leaning toward the screen with a coy smile.

 _This_ arrival got people to start hollering. “Okay, this guy I've _definitely_ seen before,” Vespa said, tilting her head down.

“Oh, hey!” Lan waved, as though he were seeing an old friend.

“What a surprise, folks!” Scoops threw her hands out toward the crowd. “Our student rep's Navi, Cubit Foxtar, has appeared in the server undetected! Is our beloved Keaton Akajima going to take the newbie for a ride?”

“That's a bit undelicate of a phrasing,” Foxtar said, standing up and dusting off his pants and grinning, “but you seem to understand my meaning. Don't keep me waiting, Lan.”

Paige looked around. “Where's Mr. Akajima?”

“Keaton is rather reclusive when it comes to NetBattling,” Dr. K explained. “Even when he's been officially challenged, he tends to sneak in from another room. Foxtar is a bit of an expert at infiltration, so he can show up in the most unexpected places.”

“Al _right_!” Lan pumped his fists, and stood up, throwing his hands to the sky. “Today is great! C'mon, Megaman, let's show 'em what we're made of!” And, throwing forth his signal with a decisive pose—

“ _Jack in, Megaman! Execute!_ ”

In the display, Lan's Navi appeared to face Foxtar. Paige blinked in surprise—this Navi, Megaman, bore quite the strong resemblance to Lan himself, aside from having a different eye color (a rather vivid green.) The two had nearly identical builds and faces, though the serious look on Megaman's face set him apart... and the helmet, and the blue spandex, but that was NetNavi standard.

“It's nice of you to come to greet us,” Megaman said after he'd landed, “but Lan was in the nurse's office. You couldn't have come earlier?”

“Wrapped up in office work,” Foxtar said, “you know how it is.”

“Yeah, I do.” Megaman sighed and rolled his eyes. “You have no idea how much of Lan's homework I had to go through last year. It's a wonder he can get out of bed sometimes.”

“It's been a while since we've gone at it,” Foxtar said, cracking his neck and stretching. “To be honest, I've really been looking forward to it. I don't like having losing records on my tab.”

“Well, may the best man win,” Megaman said with a smile. The two walked forward and shook each other's hand. “Lan, you ready?”

“Am I ever!” Lan said. “Battle routine, set!”

“ _Execute!_ ” Megaman shouted.

* * *

_(OP: “[ Kaze wo Tsukinukete](https://youtu.be/2m6c_ojaKlg)”, by Jin Hashimoto)_

And—it was like a _blur._

**Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber & Red Fox**

_Mirai e to NAVI wo tore!_

_(Guide your Navi toward the future!)_

_Dokomade mo yukeru yo,_

_(There isn't anywhere we can't go—)_

_Kaze o tsukinukete, kimi to!_

_(Let's pierce through the wind together!)_

Foxtar's footwork was breathtaking—he was lighter on his feet than any Navi Paige had ever seen, and as Megaman shifted his Buster into a sword, Foxtar vanished away from the swing and appeared behind Megaman to launch an attack. Megaman ducked down, and then— “Megaman, AquaCross!”

He changed _shape_. Megaman shifted to a bluer color scheme with a water screen across his face, and launched a rapid charge shot behind him that struck Foxtar with bubbles. Foxtar recoiled, but leapt back and gestured in front of his face to launch a series of fireballs towards Megaman—“ShadowCross!”—but Megaman shifted shape again, into a purple form reminiscent of a Ninja, and vanished much like Foxtar had through his fireballs.

_Machijyu ni habikore MYSTERY_

_(This town is full of mystery,)_

_Genjitsu no hazama ni hisomu tagakari_

_(and the clues to the truth are slipping away.)_

When Megaman appeared again, Foxtar struck at him, but it turned into a crude doll imitating Megaman, and Megaman himself leapt above to hurl a shuriken at Foxtar. Foxtar nimbly weaved underneath the shuriken, and launched his tonfa up, charging his shot to fire upward a blast of flaming napalm which caught Megaman and sent him toward the ground. Scoops was commentating, but it was all Paige could do to keep up with the fight.

_Jitto shiterarenai_

_(I can't sit still!)_

“TenguCross!” Lan called out, and Megaman shifted again, into a form reminiscent of an Electopian beast called a Tengu, which allowed him to catch himself. “Okay, we took some damage. RollCross!”

“Right!” Megaman called out.

_tatta ima shiritai,_

_(I have to know!)_

This form was red-armored, and had a pair of hair-like decorations atop Megaman's head. He fired a few vulcan shots, and the damage he'd taken visibly recovered as he laid in his assault. Foxtar turned invisible again, but—“SearchCross!” “Got it!”

_Yuuki no PLUG-IN tobikonde!_

_(So let's be brave and JACK IN!)_

A camo-patterned form whose Buster turned into a long rifle. Megaman leaned in to look at his scope and fired rapid homing shots toward the invisible Foxtar, who had to do quite some work to weave in between them. However, Foxtar approached despite the damage he took, and prepared to strike Megaman—“KingCross!”

_Semari kuru nazo wo toke_

_(We've gotta solve this puzzle now!)_

A red-robed form with a crown, like a chess piece—just like those he'd summoned around Foxtar to trap him after his attack. Megaman took the attack on the chin, because within these hard pawns and knights, he couldn't move an inch. “Megaman, switch to SlashCross!” Lan leaned in to the Chip he'd just sent, pushing buttons on his PET at an incredible speed.

_OH, ROCKMAN! Futari de_

_(Together with you, Megaman,)_

_kotae mitsuketa suno sa!_

_(I know we can find the answer!)_

This form was pointed, with long arms and sharp claws. His arm shifted into another sword, this one glowing with an incredible power, and he launched four rapid slashes which created shockwaves, each one glowing with a different element. Foxtar couldn't help but yell at the brutal attack, but he leapt over the pieces that had trapped him once he could, and floated into the air to fill the ground beneath Megaman's feet with erupting geysers of fire.

_Girigiri no batoru demo,_

_(Even if we have to fight to the bitter end,)_

“That's too easy, Keaton!” Lan said. “GroundCross!”

This final form was bulky, a heavy, industrial brown, with heavy drills on its shoulders. With another charge shot, Megaman burrowed into the ground, beneath Foxtar's attack, and rapidly advanced through the earth to catch Foxtar as he landed. He forced him back with a heavy drill attack, and though Foxtar tried to stand up after that, he simply couldn't.

_akiramezu tatakau,_

_(We won't give up—)_

_kimi ga iru kagiri tsuyoku!_

_(because I'm stronger with you!)_

A buzzer rang out, and Megaman returned to his regular shape. “Nice work, Lan!” he said. “I thought you might lose track with all that studying you did for once.”

“Nah, I've got this! It's in my mind like a steel trap!” Lan replied. Scoops was hollering.

The crowd _exploded_ at the sight of Foxtar on the ground, and when he managed to get up at all, he just smiled. “Nice fight, as usual,” he said, as Megaman walked toward him.

“You too,” Megaman said, helping Foxtar up. The two of them shook hands again, and then simultaneously jacked out.

* * *

Paige blinked. Once, twice, three times. “W... what?”

“These boys are quite something, you know,” Dr. K said. He laughed. “They've saved this country more than once.”

“Stupid, full of themselves, grumble grumble,” Vespa... grumbled.

As the crowd let out, Paige following behind Vespa, Audrey, and Dr. K, she could see Lan, hurrying out of the room, running into Keaton, who'd been standing outside. “Hey, man!” Lan said, running up and giving Keaton a high five. “Great fight!”

“As always, I have no idea how you do any of that.” Keaton laughed. “It's good to see you, Lan. It's about time you got in here.”

“Sorry I missed your speech,” Lan said. Then he smirked. “But I bet I can imagine it. Better future, right?”

“H-hey!” Keaton sputtered, putting his hand against his chest. “I work really hard on those!”

“I know, I know. They've gotten a lot better!” Lan said.

Eventually, Eiji stopped bothering trying to cut into the conversation and slunk over to Paige and the rest, sighing, “I told him to get bed rest... I don't know how to deal with patients that energetic yet.”

“It happens,” Vespa snorted. She looked over at Lan again. “Guys like that are too stupid to live.”

“Vespa, really, is there history here I don't know about?” Paige asked, clasping her hands together to her Navi. “I don't understand.”

Vespa started to say something, but was interrupted by the sudden realization that Scoops was present in the group, having osmosed herself into presence. “Gah!”

“Incredible match, wasn't it?” Scoops asked, leaning back and cackling. “Not to say you weren't great, kids, but that was a real great match, right? It'd make a great story, right?” She hopped over to Eiji and pulled him in under her shoulder—the two were about the same height, so it looked pretty natural. “Right, Eiji?” Then she frowned. “Who made you cry? Who do I have to pound?”

“Scoops, please...” Eiji wailed. “I just want to go to bed.”

...Was every day going to be this noisy? Paige began to deflate, and Dr. K put his hand on her shoulder. “It might take some adjustment,” he said.

* * *

_**Date: August 21, 20XX** _

**_Location: Ayanokoji Net College, Nurse's Office_ **

“At it again, are we?” The nurse sighed.

—This here was Cinnamon, the college's primary medical professional. With her cat paws, cutesy white-with-red-trim color scheme with armor reminiscent of a poofy skirt, cat ears, and cat tail, she had an awfully _moe_ appeal—though she personally considered her face, an old CRT monitor that displayed her emotions in simple, easy-to-read emoticons, her best feature, as it made communication easy. “Eiji, could you hand me some antiseptic?” She asked.

“I'm telling you, I was just about to see a deal being made!” Scoops said, then hissed as Eiji's gentle hands placed some antiseptic on the wounds she'd taken from the brambles of the bush she'd hidden in. “It was totally worth it!”

“Maki...” Eiji sighed, his eyes downcast. “You really need to be more careful. What if I'm not there?”

“Doesn't compute,” Scoops said, her eyes crossed. “And—hey! Paige and Audrey are _right there_!” She threw her arm wide to gesture to Paige and Audrey, who were idly playing a card game on the chairs at the edge of the office.

—So, to explain, somehow or another Paige had wound up hanging out with these three. She wasn't entirely sure how herself, but it had simply wound up happening. “What?” Paige raised her head up. Audrey, though, was deathly focused, and did no such thing. “I didn't hear you.”

It had been about a week now, and things seemed to be settling in. Aside from Vespa mean-mugging at the Hikaris every time she saw them, which they apparently had yet to notice, things had been going as normally as they possibly could.

But, last night, Paige and Vespa had had a discussion. “I think I'm going to start looking around about it tomorrow,” Paige said, and Vespa had immediately looked up. “The calling card, I mean.”

“...You sure?” Vespa had asked, laying down on the bed. “Might be trouble.”

“Yes,” Paige said, nodding her head. “I don't think it's something we should just leave alone.”

—Then, she'd wound up finding Scoops in a bush, covered in thorns, and that was how they'd arrived here. “I'm very sorry about the trouble, girls,” Cinnamon said, leaning down to clasp her hands with a bright smile. “He tells me she's always been like this.”

“Oh, it's no problem at all,” Paige said, shaking her head. “A-Audrey, Audrey, we're ta—”

“Aha!” Audrey said, then looked back down at her cards. “Wait... no, that's not right.”

...So, they all wound up sitting at the same table as Paige attempted to research. The disparity between Eiji and Scoops's food, which Eiji had made himself and looked absolutely gorgeous, and the slop Audrey had presumably reheated from last night, was really striking. “Miss Paige, are you alright?” Eiji asked, tilting his head. “You haven't touched your food.”

“Oh, I'm alright,” Paige said, shaking her head. She was frantically scrolling through image searches, but found nothing. “I'm just—”

Like a rocket, Scoops was somehow immediately next to Paige. She shifted her glasses and smirked. “Having a research issue? I'm your girl. My middle name is research!”

“You don't have a middle name,” Eiji said.

“Apparently, it's 'research' now,” Audrey said with a shrug, before going back to shoving whatever it was she was eating in her face.

“Hey, hey, hold up,” said Vespa, who appeared on Paige's PET and pulled down the image. “This is kind of a serious thing we got going here, you sure you want to look at this?”

“Your words only increase my desire,” Scoops said, her eyes gleaming ever brighter. “I am a reporter, Vespa.”

Vespa shrugged and pulled the image of the calling card back up. The loud _squeal_ from Scoops was enough to make Paige shut her ears. When she was excited, Scoops had a tendency to make these interesting little nasally noises that slowly increased in pitch, and also contract in on herself.

This got Audrey and Eiji to come over and check, and Paige had no choice but to explain the context of the attack on her uncle's lab and the theft of the 'Erosion Key'. “Oh my god,” Scoops said, “this is it. This is the scoop of a lifetime. Yes. Yes! This is the best day of my life! _Yes_!” She started jumping up and down like an idiot.

“What's got you so excited?” Audrey raised an eyebrow.

“Wait, d-do you know what this is?” Paige asked, raising the PET as she did.

“ _Do I?!_ ” Scoops leaned in uncomfortably close. “Eiji!” She turned her head to him, and Eiji yelped. “Am I Scoops Hanasaka, Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter?”

“Yes?” Eiji said.

“Paige, you've got something very exciting here,” Scoops said, returning to grab her PET and stare gleefully at it. Vespa groaned about being manhandled. “What you've got here, this whole incident you're talking about, this here? This here?” She tipped her hat. “This is a calling card from the famous NetNavi phantom thief, _Tech Kraken!_ ”

Pause.

**Episode 2: The Mystery of 'K'! Hunt for a Great Thief?!**

“...Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!” Paige jumped up.

* * *

_(ED:[ NEO VENUS](https://youtu.be/sjc_zWAPsuc), by JANNE DA ARC)_

_**On the Next: Battle Network Vespa.EXE!** _

_Oshiete, Venus, boku no tsubasa wa ima mo_

_(Tell me, Venus, my wings -)_

_Mada shiroku kagayai teru ka?_

_(Are they still shining bright?)_

With a tip from her new friends, Paige and Vespa find a lead on how to progress in the search for the thief 'K'. Scoops suggests a visit to a famous private detective who works within the city, who caught this 'Tech Kraken' once before.

_Goran yo, Venus, me no mae no joukei o_

_(Hey, Venus, was I wrong)_

_Mesashi ta boku wa machigatte nai ka?_

_(to go for the scene before my eyes?)_

However, it won't be an easy journey. Another powerful foe appears in their way, proclaiming his allegiance to 'K'—and this one won't run away!

_Itsumo chira katta bazuru no yo na kokoro to_

_(While my heart was in disarray,)_

_Miushinai kake teta yume o_

_(like an incomplete puzzle, it was you)_

_Mou ichido ochie te kure tano wa…_

_(who taught me how to remember)_

_Anata deshi ta_

_(the dreams I’d half-forgotten.)_

And what is the truth behind Vespa's mysterious past, and the secrets she keeps within? When a mysterious new ally appears, those questions may come to light...

_VENUS, NEO VENUS, together!_

_Hikari no sasu hou he_

_(To where the light points,)_

_Mukai kaze no naka demo kumo o muke te_

_(even if we have to go against the wind and clouds)_

_Boku wa kotae o sagasu darou_

_(I’ll search for the answer,)_

_Soshite anata o hanashi wa shi nai_

_(and I’ll never let you go.)_

Next time, on Battle Network Vespa.EXE:

**Episode 3: Honorable Pegasolta! We're the Einherjar!**

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Duo Spotlight!
> 
> Makiri "Scoops" Hanasaka: An overly enthusiastic reporter who runs the school paper single-handedly with her Navi, Jet Stingray. She's been fascinated with reporting ever since she was a child, which probably stems from her overly nosy personality. She and the nurse's assistant, Eiji Kikuchi, have been best friends since childhood, and Eiji is the only person other than Scoops's mother who is allowed to use her actual name- that's Scoops Hanasaka, Electopia's best reporter, to the rest of you! While she hasn't hit anything too groundbreaking yet, she has a good feeling that her career-making scoop is in the near future.
> 
> Jet Stingray: Formerly a shady info broker, Stingray became dissatisfied with where his career had gone, and wound up becoming Scoops's Navi through a coincidence that led him to be wowed by her devotion to finding good news. He has a much more laid-back personality than his operator, which somehow works surprisingly well. Together, the two of them also have a side career in sports commentary. His signature attack, the 'Hienkyaku', translates to 'Flying Swallow Legs'. His favorite drink, when in a CopyBot, is a nice mimosa.


	8. Episode 3-P: In Her Element

_**Date: August 21, 20XX** _

_**Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Nurse's Office Backroom** _

“So,” said Scoops, as she tapped her old-timey projector to display an image onto the screen and began pacing around. Paige, Audrey, and Eiji all sat in front of it—Audrey had some real spread going on, and Eiji sat _seiza_ , and the fact that they both sat in idiosyncratic ways made Paige feel a little out of place. “This note of yours, Paige, darling, takes us back to the halcyon days of six years ago. Stingray!”

“On it,” Stingray said, and switched the slide.

Displayed on the slide was an astonishingly blurry picture of some sort of black blob in between two buildings in the Cyberworld. “A normie like yourself couldn't be expected to be too familiar,” Scoops continued, “but for a number of years, an infamous phantom thief haunted the Cyberworld! He eluded the authorities at every turn, and the rare security footage of his existence, such as this shot, wasn't helpful at all. You see, Tech Kraken was originally designed as a Navi for corporate espionage, but his intellectual curiosity to find new information went out of control, and he spilled his own company's secrets anonymously before disappearing into the night!”

“Um, what company was that?” Paige asked.

“That's not important to the story,” Scoops said, “but I can give you a pamphlet later. Tech Kraken quickly took on the persona of a gentleman thief who considered his theft of great secrets one big game with the Officials! His ability to break into security systems was unparalleled—” Scoops swung around, all of a sudden, and pointed her stick at Audrey. “Audrey! Tell us about the Alpha incident!”

“What?” Audrey scoffed. “Why?”

“Because of your weirdly thorough knowledge of the events of that specific incident!” Scoops said, not budging an inch from Audrey's spite beams.

Understanding her own defeat, Audrey rolled her eyes and said, “So, before the Alpha program got stolen, it was trapped in this part of the SciLab server that had four hard-locked gates that you needed these codes called the Tetra Codes to get into.” She started rolling her hand around by the wrist. “The guy who actually stole Alpha and started that whole thing, DrillMan, had the Codes and he broke through the barriers with his security-busting features, then dug a hole through server addresses to break out to the Undernet.”

Paige nodded. “This was... when all of those tanks around the world went berserk, right?”

“Right,” Audrey said. “Basically, Alpha was the basis of the original form of the Internet. It went berserk and started eating everything, and then it got captured, and to cover it up, a Navi was blamed for it and it was all real fucking messy, I assure you.” Audrey rubbed her face with both hands.

“ _But!_ ” Scoops cut back in. “Before that incident, one other Navi in history had managed to break into that sector of the SciLab server and come face-to-face with Alpha's core—our gentleman thief, Tech Kraken!” She tapped her screen, and the projector switched slides, to show a photo of the scene. Official Navis stood about a glowing program core, which had, atop it, a shining blue card. “He reported that he had not stolen it, because he had enough sense to know when something should not be trifled with, his words, but he'd gotten in there, _broken_ into the _highest security zone_ of the _entire Electopian government_!”

Paige blinked. “How?”

“I have no idea, but he did it!” Scoops twisted her hands around on her lecture stick. “Cool, right?”

“Okay,” Vespa said from inside Paige's PET, “that's great and all. So what do we do?”

“Hu hu hu. This is where being friends with Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter comes in handy, ye of little faith,” Scoops said. She began pacing around again, and Paige took notice of her stride—Lecture-Mode Scoops Hanasaka apparently had some military heritage in her if her goose step was that practiced. “This brings us to six years ago. A concerted effort by the world's authorities has been unable to catch him for years, but one plucky young Electopian detective enters the scene. Stingray!” Screen, smacked, slide, switched.

This here was a press photo of a young man who couldn't have been older than eighteen. His finely-combed, dusty brown hair was held in a low-back ponytail, and his bright green eyes and charmingly boyish features were accentuated by the utilitarian tortoiseshell glasses he wore. In the photo, he wore a dowdy blue suit, with a green brooch sticking on a faded red cravat.

“Enter Detective Yuu Himekago, eighteen years old and fresh out of training to become a proper private detective. His mother had been a famous private detective for years, and he cites her as his greatest inspiration,” Scoops said. “Despite his obvious young talent for detecting lies and solving crimes, Yuu is seen as cocky and untested by his seniors in the business—not in the least of which because he doesn't even have a NetNavi of his own, just an empty PET.”

“That seems like it would make things difficult,” Paige said.

“His mother had been on the Tech Kraken case for some time, so Yuu took an immediate interest in the effort to catch the Cyberworld's phantom thief. From his observations, he was able to solve a puzzle left behind at one crime scene and find one of Kraken's temporary hideouts—and he was the first who'd ever managed to do that, so Kraken obviously took notice. In his next notice, he made reference to 'the young detective', and an intellectual rivalry was sparked!” Scoops clenched her fist tight to pump it. “The two began to do battle, and despite Yuu's handicap of working solo, Kraken came to view Detective Himekago as his one true rival among the force.”

“Soon, using calculations based on what he'd learned of Kraken's personality,” and Scoops struck the screen to reveal a picture of the inside of an antiviral server, “Detective Himekago figured out Kraken's next break-in—the core of the Colonel.EXE antiviral system! Using a finely-tuned trap to route Kraken's body into a captive CopyBot, he was able to successfully trap the great thief, Tech Kraken!”

Strike. Detective Himekago standing over a bound CopyBot holding the form of Tech Kraken—a black-colored, bipedal, squid-themed Navi with green highlights for 'eyes' and along his bladed tentacles, with a rose-colored tricorn hat atop his pointed head and a dark red cloak that was probably meant to go across his thin core body when it wasn't also bound. Though Kraken didn't have a proper face, an odd pride was evident in his expression—the two both looked deeply satisfied.

“Thus, was the great thief captured!” Scoops said. “From there, Kraken's abilities were limited, and he was moved into the Cyberworld's greatest prison—and from there, no more information has been made public, so up until now, it was assumed by Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter, AKA as me,” and at this point she jabbed her own thumb at herself with a smug grin, “that he was locked up... but it seems somehow he's managed to escape! And now our new pal Paige has gotten herself embroiled in the return of his _deadly conspiracies_!”

The projector turned off, and Paige and Eiji politely clapped as Scoops bowed. “Thank you, thank you, you're too kind, try the veal.”

“Okay, so what?” Audrey asked. She laid back down on the ground and shrugged. “What are we gonna do about it?”

“As it so happens, Detective Himekago is still in the private detective business here in Electopia!” Scoops said, putting her hands on her hips and huffing. “And he owes me a favor, long story. If we bring this information to him, no doubt his intellectual curiosity will be spurred!” Eiji raised his hand. “The cute young man in the nurse's outfit!”

“If Detective Himekago has no NetNavi, won't we have to go visit him personally?” Eiji asked, tilting his head. “Um, that might be difficult, I... have training, you see...”

Scoops's big, stupid grin only twitched a little. “What's lining up four schedules?”

“Four?” Audrey and Paige simultaneously asked.

“Well, obviously we're all going,” Scoops said, rolling her eyes at Audrey. “What, did you think you were getting out of this?”

Audrey groaned. “Did she even ask you?”

“I, um,” Paige said, and she began to stammer.

“Hey,” Vespa chimed in, “the more the merrier, right? Why, Paige's bestie is always telling her she needs more friends—”

“V-Vespa!” Paige brandished her PET to try and see if maybe, just maybe, this time a volume slider would've magically appeared. It hadn't. Paige wailed. Audrey gave a wheezing little chuckle under her breath.

A knock on the door to this back room rang out, and Cinnamon opened the door. “Could I get you in here, Eiji?” she asked, her face in a ^-^ configuration. “This might be educational.”

“Right away, Sensei!” Eiji said, rocketing to his feet and bowing.

Cinnamon's face: vov. She shrugged. “I keep telling you, there's no need for so much formality.” A little simulated sigh and shake of the head made it obvious how much fondness was in there, though. “Come along. And could I ask you ladies to cut your meeting short?”

“No worries, we were just packing up,” Scoops said, sliding over to her projector and folding its reels and lenses into a highly compact form before slamming it in her backpack.

Once they were outside the nurse's office, Scoops and Audrey both bid Paige farewell and went off to do whatever it was they did. Paige pulled out her PET and looked down at Vespa, who was idly twirling her Busters. “So that was educational,” Vespa said.

* * *

_**Date: August 21, 20XX** _

_**Location: Ayanokoji Net College (Wi-Fi pass code at the administrative desk!)** _

[Paige: so, that's where we are now]

[Paige: I donno what to do... v_v]

[Mimel: well first of all]

[Mimel: your friends seem nice]

[Paige: I'm not really sure how I wound up in this situation...]

[Mimel: because youre a likable human being duh]

[Mimel: anyway pick up a hobby or something]

[Paige: Huh?]

[Mimel: if your middle name werent paige it would be 'is shit at having free time']

[Mimel: if I had five zenny for every time Ive heard you call up and moan about how sad you are because you arent being productive or some shit like that id have like]

[Mimel: like forty-five fucking zenny, paige]

[Paige: That's not a lot.]

[Mimel: IT IS A THING THAT YOU DO A LOT]

[Vespa: lmao she's got you pegged]

[Tundraman: Indubitably.]

[Mimel: quiet in the peanut gallery brainlords]

[Mimel: is there like anywhere hiring on your campus or something.]

[Paige: I can check... I don't know how qualified I could be for anywhere, though.]

[Mimel: that's my girl]

[Mimel: lmk how this whole uh great thief thing turns out?]

[Paige: I will.]

“You're hired.”

Paige blinked and tilted her head. “Excuse me?”

* * *

(OP: “[Shouri no Uta](https://youtu.be/ULuyMtgCSPk)”, by Dandelion)

_Ole! Ole!_

_Saa, tachiagare!_

_(Now, stand up!)_

_Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite!_

_(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)_

_**Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber and Red Fox** _

The manager of the campus's local Aster Land was a quiet, stone-faced woman with a red bob cut who everyone just called 'Nori'. For reasons nobody could quite decipher, she did her work in a maid outfit. According to Audrey, she was one of the biggest workaholics on campus, and nobody ever actually saw her outside of the store.

“I said,” Nori said from behind the counter, “you're hired. You begin tomorrow.”

“W-what?” Paige sputtered. “Aren't there regulations to this sort of thing?”

“I saw your NetBattle with Hanasaka. You clearly know what you're doing,” Nori said. She produced an apron in Aster Land's signature green and orange. “This should be in your size.”

Paige took the apron, nodded, said, “Okay, thank you,” and then stepped out of the store before squealing quietly into her PET.

“How the hell did she know your size?!” Vespa shouted.

_Dare ni mo mane wa sasenai sa_

_(I won’t let anyone intimidate us,)_

_Bokura dake no kono STYLE de_

_(even if we only have this as our Style.)_

_Kono uta ga mune ni todoku nara_

_(If this song reaches our hearts,)_

_Shouri wa mou te no naka ni aru_

_(victory is already in the palm of our hands!)_

It wasn't a particularly large store, so Paige was able to get the lay of the cabinets and stock rather quickly. People were mostly in classes when her hours started on her first day, so she got right to work on organizing.

“What are you doing?”

Paige yelped as Nori leapt down from atop a high shelf, coldly gazing upon Paige reordering certain display shelves. “Is there a logic to this?”

“A-ah, yes,” Paige said. She tapped one specific display case. “I saw that this case could be organized to be more intuitive for folder ordering—oh, and you see...” She pointed in. “We have Wind * and Fan * here, but the MesonCall was all the way back in the stock. It's not as effective as the raw Gater Program Advance used by Mr. Famous, but the MesonCall can be used as a bootleg Gate-type program to simulate it—Mechameson viruses have that spatial distortion inside of them for the construction of their mini-virus drones, you know? Vespa and I figured that out about two years ago, and it's caught on a little back in our hometown but I don't know if people—”

Nori leaned in and put her hands on Paige's shoulders. Paige cut herself off with a squeak. “I made a good decision hiring you,” Nori said.

_Akirameru koto wa keshite nai_

_(As long as we’re here,)_

_Kono basho ni bokura iru kagiri_

_(we’ll never give up.)_

_Tada tatakau tame dake ni bokura_

_(We’ll raise our fists to the sky)_

_Ima kobushi sora e tsukiageta_

_(so that we can fight for freedom!)_

“Welcome to Aster Land!” “Welcome to Aster Land!” “Welcome to Aster Land!”

On her first day, hardly anybody came in. Things picked up a bit the second day, and she started having a steady stream. Nori stayed in the back and allowed Paige to handle things by herself.

“Sir,” Paige said to a tall, lanky blonde man with a pointy ponytail and a sharp glare. “I notice you're looking at the Anti line—are you in need of some defense?”

“Don't tell anyone,” the blonde (“Hareng,” Vespa said in Paige's ear, “seems like he's in training to become an Official.”) said, “but I've been losing points in being lightly dinged in our aerial combat courses from arcing ground fire. My Navi's swooping is too obvious of a weak point.”

“Hm. Anti chips are obvious and effective, but they might halt your agility if you're not careful.” Paige smiled, then looked in her chip. “The name's a bit of a misnomer—have you heard of the Double Jump chip? It goes unmentioned due to regulation rules in tournament NetBattles, but it grants a burst of upward momentum if your Navi is in the air. If your Navi flies with wings, you might be able to cut short your swoops or raise the bottom of your curve if you use this. Multiple copies can be chained together with the right timing, too!”

“Does it come in *-code?” Hareng asked.

“Of course, sir,” Paige said, with a little laugh. “We wouldn't ask you to reinvent your folder for the sake of an extra jump or two.”

_Taiyou ga bokura wo terashi_

_(Illuminated by the sunlight,)_

_Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni utau_

_(we sing so we can shine brightly on the Earth!)_

“You're that girl who beat Hanasaka in a NetBattle, right?” This was a fiery-looking redhead who carried about a guitar case like it was a rocket launcher. (“Cedre,” Vespa said, “looks like she's in Net Demolitions. Heh, reminds me of my ex-girlfriend, remind me to tell you—”) “People tell me you know your stuff.”

“Oh, no, miss,” Paige said, bowing her head, “I only have a fair amount of knowhow.”

“So,” Cedre said, whipping out her Folder, “I've been trying to make this work, but the BigBombs slow me down too damn much.”

“Oh!” Paige said, after a brief scan. Cedre's folder was disorderly, but there was a definite theme of chips that required a bit too much standing in one place—though the Time Bombs were a nice touch. “I have just the thing.” Paige squatted down to look in her case, and produced a chip. “The Induct Missile—it was developed from a piece of remnant data in Colonel when it was first launched. Your Navi can launch it into the air and continue attacking independently, and it'll track the opponent as they move around.”

“ _Nice!_ ” Cedre fistpumped, and scrambled into her guitar case to pull out a blue can of... something. It had a giant 'E' on it. “You want this? I made it, it's basically the same as cyber coffee.”

“I'd prefer your money, ma'am,” Paige said.

_Ole! Ole!_

_Saa, tachiagare!_

_(Now, stand up!)_

_Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite_

_(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)_

“Just take a look at me,” said Compa, who had stepped in for some reason. “What kind of chips do you think would fit me best?”

Paige did so. She scanned the small girl up, down, and up again. “You seem like the kind of person who'd enjoy chips from the Trumpy line of viruses—you could summon them behind your Navi and have them support you. You like to sing, right, Compa?” Compa nodded. “That seems right, then.”

“And something that reminds me of Nori,” Compa added. “She's scary, so I bet she could scare the viruses off.”

Paige couldn't deny that, so she started digging in. “Hmmm... consider this promotional Solar Boy Django NaviChip, then,” she said, pulling it out. “He rides a motorcycle. Actually, you can even input a command code to make him hit twice!”

“Milady,” Nori said, popping up from behind the counter and spooking both of them, “you don't yet use a PET yourself.”

“But it'd be neat to have!” Compa protested.

_Ole! Ole!_

_Saa, maiagare!_

_(Now, fly high!)_

_Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni!_

_(Shine brightly on this Earth!)_

The glass display cases wiped down, the green and orange tiling sparkling clean, the free battle server ready to roll—Aster Land had never looked cleaner since Paige had started working there. “Toah!” Vespa said, crossing her arms and striking a Cleaning Pose with Paige. “Here we are! SPARKING! Behold the prowess of this campus's most unbeatable duo!”

“Thanks for helping,” Paige said, wiping her sweat. “That was a lot.”

“You'd think this place didn't have _any_ employees before you came in,” Vespa said, rolling her eyes and leaning on the free battle server. “Hey, Boss Lady, you ever consider smiling? Maybe not scaring off your customers?”

Nori poked her head out from the back. “No.”

“Well, that answers that,” Vespa said with a shrug. “See what a winning smile and a bit of knowhow gets you. They'll call you the Angel of Aster Land or something, heheh.”

“I really hope they don't,” Paige said, her face lighting up. She put down her bottle of glass cleaner and put her face in her hands. “I'm really just trying to do my job well.”

Then, in a sudden _whoosh_ of motion, the doors opened—and in strolled a certain student body head. “Excuse me,” said Keaton Akajima with an amicable wave, “would you be Ms. Markham?”

**Episode 3: Honorable Pegasolta! We're the Einherjar!**

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

_**Location: Aster Land (Ayanokoji Branch)** _

Paige scurried back behind the counter, dragging Vespa, who definitely didn't have anything even resembling a uniform on, with her. Paige bowed her head, and put her hand on the back of Vespa's head to signal to her to bow hers, as well. Vespa didn't catch the signal. “Hello, sir! Welcome to Aster Land! Is there something I can get you?”

After a moment of silence, that got Keaton to burst out with a moment's laughter. “Please, there's no need to be worried. Does she think I'm going to get her fired?”

“According to your fan club, you probably could,” Vespa said, sitting down in a folding chair right in front of the door to the back room.

“They exaggerate many things,” Keaton said, beginning to browse the chips on display. “I don't come in here often, since my game plan doesn't need fine-tuning all that often. I heard the new clerk was quite knowledgeable, though, so I thought I'd come in to see.”

“Oh, no, sir, I'm just...” Paige raised her head and started waving her hands. “I-I don't think I'm all that knowledgeable. It's easy to learn with a bit of practice—”

“Ah,” Keaton said, nodding to himself and looking at Vespa, “so she's the type who doesn't realize she's smart.”

“An open book, ain't she?” Vespa chuckled.

“To be honest, I'd wanted to speak with the two of you since I saw your match with Scoops,” Keaton said. He'd turned back to the display cases. “It was really impressive stuff—that use of the Windbox was inspired. It really got my blood pumping.”

“Yeah, we're _pretty great_ ,” Vespa said. She didn't kick her legs up in the counter, as Nori had already given her a stern talking-to about that. “She's the brains, I'm the brawn, we're both the pretty faces.”

“Ahaha,” Keaton said. “And _she_ ,” he said, turning his head to Paige, “is the sort who masks her feelings of inadequacy with egotism.”

Vespa fell out of her chair. “Oh, absolutely,” Paige said with a nod. “I think it's very charming.” She paused while Vespa stood up, looking a little worse for wear. “Your Navi's weapon is very unique, sir.”

“Mm,” Keaton said. “So it is.” He started smiling to himself, and you could see that he probably had a glint in his eyes even though they were closed for him to do this particular smile. “You can likely tell it's based around a tonfa, but it also has principles from a theorized single-person armament from Dr. Albert Wily's catalog called a 'recoil rod'—it's an eight-directional beam armament designed to channel surges of energy to allow for breaking heavy objects and blasting off of the ground to reach higher vantage points. I found myself very taken with it, you see, so I developed the Soul Launcher using the basic idea.”

“Really!” Paige exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. “The napalm spread from an upward shot was really an inspired choice—do they spread randomly, or can your Navi direct them?”

“There's an algorithm to determine their spread depending on the situation,” Keaton said, his eyes opening—yup, there was that glint. He'd come up to the counter, and was smiling with his teeth showing now, and by god they were bright. “In battles with large groups of viruses, I can wreak havoc by sneaking into the center of their formation and firing from there—and if I need to make a quick escape, I can do that, too. It's a wonderfully multi-purpose weapon.” He paused, and then his eyes darted to Vespa. “Now, this one's Busters—those are brilliant. The firing speed and accuracy are astonishing! Is there targeting correction on them?”

Vespa shrugged. “There is, but I barely use it unless I have to. It's dishonorable, y'know?”

“I can tell your frame is rather lightly armored just from looking,” Keaton said, “but even just from that one match it seems obvious the firepower you're packing more than makes up for it. Even a hit like that wouldn't have taken down Stingray if you hadn't really laid into him.”

“Does everyone around here know Stingray's specs or something?” Vespa scoffed.

“Well, it's hard not to know Scoops,” Keaton said. “She's... you know. Like she is.”

Paige nodded. “She is like she is.”

“Her NetBattling skills go a bit underrepresented, but anyone with an analytical eye knows that she and Stingray are quite the fearsome combination, and I, for one, pride myself on my ability to get a measure of people's skills before I fight them,” Keaton said. He was, true to his word, looking Vespa up and down. “For instance, it seems like Vespa's primary weakness is close-quarters combat, so I'd likely have a good matchup, but the unpredictability factor is one I can't discount.” Then his eyes started glowing. “Really, though—who designed those Busters?”

Pause.

“Well,” Vespa said.

Pause.

“Okay, so like, this isn't how they originally worked,” Vespa said. “A while back I fucked with them myself and got them to work basically like this. The fine-tuning's from Paige, she's a whiz with a NaviCust.”

“So it's a home job!” Keaton's face lit up. “Awesome! Navis editing their own program isn't heard of nearly often, I've seen some really incredible programming come out of that—how did they work before then, if you don't mind me asking?”

Vespa blinked. “Uh...” She whipped out her Busters, and started sliding them together. “They used to fit together, uh, like this... they'd form this defensive shield? The old man always called it his _Hiiiiive Matrix_! Way slower, more like a cannon. Wasn't my style.”

“Ah,” Keaton said, “that explains everything.” He nodded to himself. “Thank you for indulging my questions. I don't get the chance to talk shop _nearly_ enough.”

“You're friends with, er, Mr. Hikari, aren't you?” Paige asked.

Keaton frowned, and shook his head with a sigh. “The boy's got talent, but talking technical details with him is like plucking hairs. Details like that aren't his strong suit. He works more on... gut instinct. Inspiration, you could say.”

“Sounds obnoxious,” Vespa said, snorting.

Scanning the display cases one last time, Keaton came across a Whirlpool chip. “Oh, I don't believe I have this one. If I send my collection update into the Star Force Club, you know, I get merch!” Keaton winked. “May I?”

“Of course, sir,” Paige said.

“Please, do call me Keaton,” Keaton said. “Oh—one other thing. Hm, how to put this...” He trailed off for a moment as he stored his new purchase. “Are you going anywhere soon?”

“Um, yes, in a few hours...” Paige blinked. “Why do you ask?”

“Hm. I've just got an odd feeling,” Keaton said. He stopped, then, and laughed at himself. “Look at me. I sound like Lan, he's been rubbing off on me too much. Well, a bit of intuition never did anyone wrong, I suppose... anyway, maybe we can have a match some time.”

Student Body Head Keaton Akajima turned on his heel, and gave a remarkably cool wave you could almost see the sparkles on as he left. “See you! Hope to speak with you again soon!”

The doors closed.

“Oh my god, I'm blind,” Vespa said. She started rubbing her eyes. “What's the Star Force Club?”

“I don't know,” Paige said. “He seems nice.” She paused. “Oh—do you recognize him now?”

Vespa sighed. “Okay, see, I think he recognized _me_ , based on that one comment, but I just don't quite... ugh.” She tapped her head. “Stupid poncey bastard.”

“He seems nice!” Paige said.

“You're only saying that because he's a _nerd_ like _you_ ,” Vespa said, flapping her hands a bit. “You can talk about your _nerd_ things like _nerds_.”

“Are you still mad about—”

“ _ **Yes!**_ ” Vespa gritted her teeth and _seethed_ out the word. “How dare that ponce! I'll get him one of these days!”

* * *

**_Date: August 29, 20XX_ **

**_Location: Den City Metropolitan Area_ **

After finishing her shift for the day, Paige headed back to her room, took off her apron, put on her sweater for the slowly-cooling weather, and started her ginger jog to the subway station. “I've never ridden an Electopian subway before,” Paige said. “What do you think they sound like?”

“Like trains,” Vespa said.

The two of them stopped in in front of the nurse's office to pick up Eiji. He came out of the office dressed professionally for the occasion, with a flowery-printed cardigan over a one-piece long-sleeved dress and warmly knit woolen socks. He even had his hair held up with some small rods in a traditional Electopian style. “God,” Vespa said, “can you give Paige some fashion tips one of these days?”

“If she asked me, I would be happy to,” Eiji said. His PET buzzed inside his purse, and he lifted it out. “Are we alright, Cinnamon?”

“Fleuve should be able to handle any minor injuries around here,” Cinnamon answered. “It's been a while since we've been to the city.”

“Who?” Vespa asked.

“The assistant nurse,” Cinnamon answered. “As opposed to the nurse's assistant, of course. I'm sure people would be much less liable to enjoy their time in here if I had a short old man under my wing rather than Eiji. And he certainly wouldn't play along with my little gags, either—it's really killer to think about.”

“Oh, no, Mr. Fleuve is a very skilled medical technician,” Eiji said. “I'm only an apprentice.”

“Yes, but you have other positive qualities he doesn't have, dear,” Cinnamon said. She laughed to herself. Paige laughed a little, too. “Shall we be off?”

As they walked to the station, Paige spoke up. “So, it... is a little odd to see a human studying under a Navi like this.”

“Yeah,” Vespa said, “it's like, what, are you gonna say 'Healing routine, set!' and then Eiji goes 'Execute!'”

“Yes,” Cinnamon said.

Pause.

“I do that regularly and he says it every time,” Cinnamon continued. “It's precious.”

Eiji's face was bright red. “Oh, Cinnamon... You're embarrassing me!”

Cinnamon laughed, and chirped a little as her face shifted for it. “Eiji and I have been partners for about six years now. I was working freelance as a battlefield medic until the Kikuchi family had need of a live-in doctor _and_ wanted to find a Navi for their son. As it happened, I was able to fulfill both needs.”

“A battlefield medic?” Vespa said, raising her eyebrow. “What battlefields?”

“Whether in the real world or the Cyberworld, there will always be battlefields,” Cinnamon said, her voice momentarily growing heavy. “My creator sent me out with the intent of learning about the people of our world, and that was just where I wound up, I suppose. Then, while Eiji was in high school, the job listing for a head nurse at Ayanokoji opened up, and where better to teach Eiji than in a cutting-edge school for breaking the boundaries between the two worlds?”

“You took the job to teach this kid?” Vespa said.

“I took the job to help people _and_ to teach this kid,” Cinnamon said. “I'm just an altruistic person at heart, you see.” She laughed a little at her own joke.

“No truly altruistic person calls themselves altruistic, lady,” Vespa said, rolling her eyes (not that Cinnamon could see that.)

“Say what you will. As long as I have Eiji's pretty face and genuine altruism by my side,” Cinnamon said, “I'm invincible. Aren't I, Eiji?”

“Cinnamon, please don't joke like that. I worry you might _actually_ rob the bank this time,” Eiji said. He was smiling, too.

Before Paige could chime into the conversation again, Scoops hailed them in front of the stairs down into the train station. Audrey was idly tapping away at her PET next to her. “Hey, party people!” Scoops said. She slammed her right fist into her open left palm. “You ready to get down to brass tacks and make my career?”

“The key was stolen from _my_ uncle's lab, Scoops,” Paige giggled. “It's not just your career on the line.”

Scoops wasn't listening. She was, instead, adjusting her glasses. “Gehehehe... a plucky band of four youths looking to solve a large mystery! It's like something out of a classic novel or TV show... why, all we'd need is an animal mascot and we'd be—” Pause. Turn. She stared at Vespa. “Never mind, we're good.”

“I'm gonna _bury_ you,” Vespa said, shaking her fist, leering her eyes, and gritting her teeth. She jutted her jaw forward, too. Very threatening.

“Alright,” Audrey said, as the five of them stepped down the stairs, “looks like our train's arriving in about five minutes.”

“Should we buy our tickets, then?” Paige said, looking at the line in front of the ticket booth. Given the indoor nature of this station, it was a lot noisier than the train stations Paige was used to—a train drove by on the opposite tracks, though, and even under the fluorescent light, that sound filled Paige with a little bit of comfort.

“Nah,” Scoops said, “Audrey covered it.” Paige blinked and turned her head to Audrey, who shrugged. “She has a fund of illegal drug money or something that she pulls into—”

“It's _not_ illegal drug money,” Audrey grunted.

“Then what is it, esteemed future Dr. Longhener?” Scoops said, with a smug grin.

Audrey whipped her head around, that mess of hair on her head looking almost like a windstorm. “Look, do you wanna get into the particulars of my backstory in a fucking subway station?” Pause. “Oh wait, it's you. Point is, we got five tickets—four humans, three ride-along Navis, one Navi in a CopyBot.”

“You even thought about me?” Vespa gasped, her voice filled with some kind of emotion. “How sweet!”

“We're gonna have to hit a connection to another line,” Audrey said, looking back down at her screen, tapping with her thumb at an incredible speed, “and from there it'll be about ten minutes to our stop. If we hit Elec Town or the Froid Waterworks, we've gone too far.”

Eiji, meanwhile, was looking up at the board that displayed the itinerary. Paige turned to him, and followed his gaze—it was slight, but there were a few visual oddities. “Does this line go to End City?” Eiji asked, frowning.

“Huh? No, that's another line,” Audrey said.

And inaccuracies in the itinerary itself, too... Paige rubbed her chin, then hailed down an employee, a tall, pointy-chinned man with an obviously ever-fixed frown. His nametag said, 'Hello, my name is 'autruche'.' “Sir, there appears to be something wrong with the itinerary board.”

“Oh...” The employee looked up at it, and scratched his head. “So there is. I'll... get right on reporting that. Yes, I will...” He walked away.

“Problem resolved!” Vespa said, with a thumbs up. “Nice one. Public speaking. Very cool.” Two thumbs up.

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

_**Location: Intercity Subway (End to Castillo "Ika Line"), Car 314** _

As soon as the train car they'd gotten on began to move, Paige leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She let the vibrations flow through her body, her ear leaning into the wall so she could hear the train car's motion. With her eyes closed, the vibrations were more obvious, more intense—sometimes, she could almost drift off to that sound. It was definitely different when you were underground, but the rickety sound of train tracks never fundamentally changed.

Vespa, at some point, had put her arm around Paige, but no matter how noisy Vespa was, she knew well to respect Paige's quiet time. A soft little nap, maybe, wrapped in the warmth of the sound of the earth. Maybe—

_“Mom, Dad, look! I can move the earth!”_

_“Sweetie—sweetie, come look! Tempo's—!”_

The train ground to a halt, and Paige was shaken awake. “Huh?” People began to look around and grumble.

A voice on the train's intercom turned on. “We're terribly sorry for the inconvenience. We've had a minor issue with our routing system. You should be on your way in just a few minutes.”

“Shit,” Audrey said, kicking up her legs on the other side of the subway and clicking her tongue. (It wasn't too busy of a day, thankfully, so she didn't kick anyone by slouching.) “We're gonna miss our connection.”

“...an issue with the routing system?” Paige muttered to herself. “I wonder if it could have anything to do with the glitches from earlier?” She hummed. “How are the Electopian subways guided?”

A collective shrug was drawn from the group. “That's not my field of expertise,” Scoops said, bouncing up and down in her seat.

“If it's serious enough to stop the trains...” Paige looked around. People were beginning to fret—a mother holding her child's hand, an old man breathing heavily... “These people need to get to where they're going. Vespa, let's go take a look.”

Pause. “Wait, what?” Vespa said.

“Let's go take a look,” Paige repeated. “There should be a jack-in point somewhere in the train to reach at least this car's internal network. Maybe from there we can figure out what's wrong.”

“Why?” Audrey said.

Paige blinked. “Because these people need to get to where they're going. C'mon, Vespa.”

Vespa stage-whispered, “Her hero complex is showing again,” before zapping out of the CopyBot and into Paige's PET.

With a grunt, Scoops stood up. “Alright, alright, c'mon, I'll go too! A reporter's not a reporter if she doesn't investigate.”

The jack-in point was nestled between a door and a map of the wider train network. “I'm sorry,” Paige said to a man standing by it, “but would it be okay if I got in there? My friend and I are NetBattlers, and I'd like to see if I can take a look.”

“Aw, well, sure!” The stout, muscular man took a seat and scooted over. “Go right ahead, young lady. No bother.”

Paige and Scoops turned to each other and nodded, and in unison—

“ _Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”_

“ _Hot off the press! Stingray, Execute!”_


	9. Episode 3-V: Target Chaser

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: “Ika Line” Car 314 Internal Server_ **

The connective beams dissipated early, and Vespa and Stingray materialized mid-air pre-landing. Vespa grinned, and twirled over to catch a ride on Stingray's back, holding onto his shoulders. “Enjoying the flight?” Stingray asked.

“It's a lot better when I'm riding this way,” Vespa said. “The foot ride is pretty weak.”

“No kidding,” Stingray laughed.

The two of them touched down on a circular platform, with a red squid logo on it. This was about the only flat land for ages—this train's network platform was a small part of the Intercity Network's massive interconnected web. Outside its alcove, the whole line was connected through a massive, gunmetal grey vertical tunnel, with red rapid-transit connections running up and down through the walls faster than Vespa's eyes could process. A heavy wind current blew upwards through the line, and for as far as Vespa could see, there wasn't an end to it either up or... well, down, unfortunately enough.

Vespa reached up to briefly disable comms. “Stingray, can you take some pictures?” Vespa asked, cocking her head. “Let's surprise Paige with a record of this! She'll totally nerd out, she's big into trains and all.”

“Why not just take the photo yourself?” Stingray asked, doffing his trenchcoat and opening up his wings. Hat stayed on, though. “You've got image capture, don't you?”

“Eh, you don't get it,” Vespa said, scoffing. “I've got an image to maintain.”

“So are the train networks different in Netopia?” Stingray cocked his head up, one hand on his hat.

“You can ask her all about that later, dude, she has a billion words about it.” Vespa re-enabled her comms. “Okay, so it doesn't look like there's anything obviously wrong with _this_ car. Stingray and I are gonna head toward the end of the line and see what's up.”

“Alright,” Paige said, and thankfully she didn't ask what that silence was about. “Be careful.”

There was a small outcropping that led to a single rapid transit line. Just stepping out into the open was enough to start blowing Vespa's hair up. That one lock that never went anywhere but in front of her forehead was particularly ornery at times like these. “You're lucky you don't have hair,” Vespa said.

Stingray snorted. “You take that line. I can fly, I can grab onto... that one over there,” and he pointed to a line about four spaces over.

“Okey-doke,” Vespa said, and reached out to touch the line on the wall.

Within the blink of an eye, Stingray was well down there and disappearing out of sight, as Vespa held on to the rail for dear life. The propulsion speed on these gave her a bit of a head rush, and she grumbled, “Ohhh man, I'm glad I can't puke right now!” as she grabbed on with both hands to keep steady.

Cars 313, 312, 311, and 310 passed by within seconds, but then Stingray, riding up with both feet on the nearby rail, flinched. “Hostiles incoming from below!”

Vespa looked up instinctively—wait, below. Right. Looking down, she was able to catch sight of a fleet of red, bird-shaped viruses with ovoid bodies jetting up from below. “Ahhh, shit,” she said, “ _Pipis_? I hate these things anyway!”

Stingray switched his arms into attack mode as Car 307 passed them by. Launching his Ground Hunters, though, proved ineffective—they landed too soon and didn't move quickly enough in the air to catch the high-flying Pipis. The leader of the fleet produced its signature attack, the Egg Bomb. “Vespa!” Stingray said. “Copipis incoming!”

Launching the Egg Bomb in to the side of the two Navis, the Pipi released its attack. Upon hitting the ground, the egg shattered, and a smaller cloud of tiny Copipis appeared and aimed directly for Vespa and Stingray. “Vespa!” Paige said. “Use your feet, the rail has internal gravity!”

Vespa blinked. “Oh, right!” With an adept flip, she flung herself off the rail, reoriented herself in midair, and landed on the rail, facing backward toward her opponents. “Don't worry, Stingray, Mama's got this.” Materializing her Busters with a showy spin, she aimed toward the Copipis and smirked. “No wise man ever took an egg to a gun fight.”

Pipis were never much known for their durability, so a single pinpoint shot from Vespa was easily able to take down each one of the leader's spawn. The fleet of Pipis above them began to disperse, but Vespa aimed to both sides and fired upon the two Pipis at the side, obliterating them in short order.

Three Pipis remained, but Vespa and Stingray weren't out of the woods yet. Out of the network entrance for Car 290, the sound of engines began to thrum as a pair of Fighter Plane viruses launched into the fray as well. “We're getting a lot of flying viruses,” Vespa said. “Think it's a coincidence?”

“Probably not,” Stingray said. “Bad news, though,” and he pointed upward, behind Vespa. The rail she was on was about to end, turning in to meet Car 283. The other rails split off, and the next rail above her began about three cars away. “You think you can make that jump?”

Vespa shook her head. “Don't wanna chance it.” Looking down, she took a moment to take inventory, and then grinned. “I've got a better plan.”

She took aim again to fire at the Pipis, shooting down another Egg Bomb in midair. She very pointedly _didn't_ aim at the Fighter Planes, though, and sure enough, one of them began its Air Raid strategy—taking three charges at their opponent, and then firing a blast of gunfire, was how it was supposed to work. Once she saw that, Vespa fired a single shot at the Fighter Plane. “Over here, ugly!”

The Fighter Plane charged toward Vespa, launching itself high upward with the help of the wind current. Vespa, for her part, _also_ launched herself upward—she jumped off of the rail, and with the help of the boost from its propulsion, caught on to the wing of the Fighter Plane. Its charge took it well past the next rail, and before it could fire on her, Vespa jumped off again to hit up the rail next to Stingray. “See?” she said, giving a thumbs up. “Better plan.”

“Nice one,” Stingray said. “You're not gonna be able to keep up the dodging on just that rail, though. I've got an even better plan.”

In one motion, Stingray transitioned to laying face-first on the rail, placing himself as a platform. “Jump on!” he said. “I'll handle the dodging, you handle the shooting.”

Vespa wasn't complaining about that. She did just that. “You should be able to turn around pretty easy on my back,” Stingray said. “Just know I might have to jump.”

“No worries!” Vespa said. “Sorry to say, though, you'll always be second in my heart to Chaser.”

“That's fine,” Stingray said, and though he was face-down Vespa could hear the smile in his voice. “I'd never get between a woman and her chopper.”

By now, they were into the two-fifty range, and a few small, red viruses had appeared. “What're those?” Vespa asked.

Comms shuffle. “Looks like they're Smokies,” Audrey said. “They're gonna leave behind some real pretty gas for you. They're endemic to way to the northeast of the Amerope supercontinent, but some virus researcher accidentally left some of them around here.”

“Oh, how educational,” Paige said. As promised, they began to expel clouds of blue, yellow, and pink gas, creating a smokescreen for Pipis and Fighter Planes to dodge behind. Unfortunately for them, Miss Vespa was a real crack shot. Having a full 360-degree range of motion meant she was able to really lay into a lot the smaller enemies, leaving quite a few Pipis and a few stronger Fighter Planes crashing down to the ground and dispersing. Then—

“Wha—?” Vespa turned upward to see a distortion around Car 203's connection, about ten cars away. Its layer of the area was rapidly rotating, leaving the rails inconsistent. “Stingray, can you tap into the comms in there?”

He was. “Please come in. This is Line Inspector Jet Stingray speaking, over.”

“OH, THANK GOODNESS!” That was the chirpy voice of a Mr. Prog. “IT'S GOOD YOU CAME WHEN YOU DID, BECAUSE—”

“One second,” Stingray said. “Scoops!”

Stingray leapt into the air, and Scoops audibly grinned and said, “NorthWind sent!” Another burst of wind from Scoops's BattleChip sent several viruses flying and dissipated the Smokies' distractions, but more importantly, Stingray was able to catch the wind and sail clean past the area for Car 203.

Vespa posed on top, as though she were a skateboarder, then went, “Heh heh, nice,” and went back to shooting as they landed.

“Sorry about that,” Stingray said. “Your place on the line is out of control. What's going on?”

“OUR CAR ISN'T CURRENTLY OCCUPIED,” Prog 203 said, “BUT IT'S GOING ON AN UNUSED PART OF THE TRACKS! IT'S GOING IN CIRCLES! I THINK THE NAVIGATION PROG IS GETTING BAD SIGNALS FROM THE MAIN TOWER!”

“Understood,” Stingray said. “We'll get right on that. Hang tight, this issue will be solved momentarily. Over and out.”

“OKAY! I'LL QUIET MY PANIC ROUTINE AS BEST I CAN!” Prog 203 said, before Stingray cut the line.

“W-won't you get in trouble for impersonating a line inspector?” Paige said.

Scoops chuckled, and then presumably showed Paige some sort of ID. “Stingray's got a lot of notches under his belt.”

“Oh, wow,” Paige said. “I—sir?”

Some old guy from the outside laughed and said, “Oh, you kids just remind me of my own adventurous days from back when I was your age.”

“That's good to hear, sir,” Paige said.

Car 127, higher up the line, was also disturbed. Prog 127 had much the same story to tell—“Seems like something's up with the main tower,” Stingray said. “It's sending faulty signals.”

“Okay,” Vespa said, “how do we get there?”

“We're gonna have to head to the end of the line and hit the top multi-line network,” Stingray said. “The tower's Cyberworld is dead center in there, you can't miss it.”

Vespa turned and fired upon a Fighter Plane who was getting too close for comfort, and then looked down again. “Oh, for cybergod's sakes.”

“You can just say 'god's sakes',” Stingray said.

A heavy, propeller-laden virus in green camo, with a grey underbelly and a yellow mouth, was flying up behind the virus fleet. It opened its mouth to consume a few Pipis, who landed inside to restock. “Whaler incoming!” Vespa said.

“Oh, for god's sakes!” Stingray said, and he probably would've thrown up his hands if he weren't busy face-surfing.

“That explains where all the Pipis were coming from,” Paige said. “That must be their main ship! If you can shoot it down, it should be smooth sailing from there!”

“Easy for you to say!” Vespa grunted, turning her guns upon the Whaler's underside. However, Whalers weren't nearly so fragile as other viruses—Vespa's shots barely made a dent in their underside, except in specific venting locations Vespa had never fully gotten used to shooting. Car 90 passed them by. Then—

“Do either of you young ladies have a Tank Cannon?” That same old man was muttering aloud. “Why, I remember once when I was a bit younger, I punctured the underside of a Whaler with a Tank Cannon, and it started to deflate right quickly.”

Vespa continued firing, shooting down some missiles launched from the Whalers, as the Fighter Planes and Pipis continued their assault from around it. “Er, no, sir,” Paige said. “Um, Scoops, do you—?”

“Nada,” Scoops said.

“Oh, well that's alright,” the old man said. “As it happens, I've kept it in my back pocket here... give me a moment to find it... er, hold on, I swear it was there... ah, here we are. You can borrow it, if you'd like—?”

Quick as a wink. “Vespa, I'm editing the folder! Hold on for a second and you'll have it!”

“Got it!” Vespa called, as Scoops sent in another NorthWind to launch them past a third out-of-control train car. As the Whaler's mouth opened, Vespa fired some shots in to obliterate the reloading Pipis. The shots left some dents in the loading bay, but she didn't have a clear shot to inside.

Then—Click. “Oh ho ho ho, here we go,” Vespa said, as the heft of a Tank Cannon almost as large as she was landed on her right shoulder. She holstered her guns and took a moment to aim, right at a soft spot on its underbelly, and—! “ _Jackpot!_ ”

The explosive projectile of the Tank Cannon blew open the hull of the Whaler, which rapidly began to lose air from inside. Its movements became destabilized, and Vespa opened fire in the hole she'd just made. Soon, the force from her shots sent a hail of rapid-fire Vesper Chaser shots through to the other side of the Whaler, piercing through and causing it to careen into the wall, taking out its minions with it. The data explosion from it launched up the corridor, and some Chip data landed in Vespa's hands.

With a fistpump, Vespa cheered. “Hell yeah! We _rule_!” Stingray gave her a thumbs up from under her.

“Thank you so much, sir!” Paige said, relief clear in her breath. “I—?!”

The connection—shook—

“Paige, what's wrong?” Vespa said, and instictively tapped her right ear. “Paige?!”

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: “Ika Line” Car 314_ **

The entire car _shuddered_. “Hold on to something!” Audrey shouted. “Everyone _hold on!_ ”

Outside of the car, Paige could just barely see the earth itself shaking. “It's an earthquake!” she called out. Vespa's CopyBot nearly fell to the ground before the heavy-set man whose seat Paige had taken caught it. “About a 4.6—it should pass soon!”

“You can _tell_?!” Audrey, who was desperately trying to hang on to the grip on the ceiling, said. She looked down at Paige. “How the hell can you tell?!”

After a few more moments' shaking, the car stopped, and the lights, which had flickered, returned to being on. Paige let go on her seat and raised her head back up, and on the floor, she saw—“S-sir, are you alright?!”

He was an old man who'd long since gone bald, with bushy eyebrows that nearly entirely covered his narrow eyes. He had a pointed, droopy mustache, pure white, and a long, dignified beard. He was clad in a faded green coat, and his wooden cane had fallen on the floor with him—because he was on the _floor_ , moaning and clutching his chest.

People who'd crowded to the seats and grips were backing away a little, as the old man groaned, his breath labored and heavy. “I—” Paige started.

Then, Eiji, who'd been a bit behind the rest of them, ran past a few other passengers and slid onto his knees by the old man. “Sir, what's wrong?!” he said, kneeling down, his eyes scanning the old man for any injuries.

“Eiji!” Cinnamon called. “The CopyBot!”

With a nod, Eiji turned his head to Paige and said, “I'm sorry, but I need to borrow this!” He lifted up his PET, and with a click, Cinnamon materialized in the heavy-set passenger man's arms. Eiji smiled, then turned back to the old man. “Sir, it's alright. My Navi and I—”

“We're doctors,” Cinnamon said, kneeling next to the old man. “We're going to keep you safe.”

“Oh, well isn't that nice,” the old man said, his voice still a little airy and distracted even as he gritted his teeth in pain. “What nice young folk you all are...”

Cinnamon's monitor displayed scanlines for a moment as she took inventory of the man. “His vitals are weak, and I'm detecting an irregularity in his heart.”

“Ah—Sir, you were breathing heavily earlier, weren't you?” Eiji said. “Do you have any pre-existing conditions?”

“My... pacemaker's been acting up lately...” the old man croaked out. “You see, I was... on my way into the city to get it—” His forehead was covered in sweat.

“His heartbeat is showing signs of regular atrial fibrillation,” Cinnamon said. “Eiji!”

“Sir, we're going to keep you safe. Please stay with us,” Eiji said. He raised his head. “Someone please hurry to the front of the train and get the conductor and any other employees! We need to contact a paramedic—this man needs to get to the hospital!”

Before she could even process the thought, Paige's legs were already moving. “Hey—Paige?!” Vespa called out. Audrey followed behind, and the two of them charged forward one, two, three—

Paige slammed open the door to the head of the train, where the conductor, a blonde woman with a heavy black visor over her head to view the network of the trains, turned her head, raised her visor, and said, “Excuse me—!”

“A passenger is having a heart attack!” Paige said, her own breath heavy now from the exertion of running. “We need to message the paramedics! How do we get a message out from this train to the paramedics?!”

The conductor's eyes widened, and said, “Usually, we're kept to the inter-line network, and—ugh,” she said, turning her head to the empty seat _next_ to her, “for all the days for Rouge to have called out sick!”

Slipping by Paige with surprising swiftness, Audrey sat her butt in the network operator's seat and said, “Don't worry, I got this.”

“Ma'am—”

“I _got_ this,” Audrey said, turning her head and giving a foul look to the conductor. “Here's the intercom—Paige, get back over there, I've got this covered.”

“Right!” Paige nodded. “Thanks, Audrey!”

Thumbs up. “Don't mention it,” Audrey said.

Paige burst again through the other cars to reach where Eiji, Scoops, and the old man were waiting. Eiji was loosening the old man's clothes, including an overly tight belt buckle. “...and I remember she left me a note,” the old man said, “and a three-leaf clover. The note said, 'I'm sorry I couldn't find you a four-leaf clover, Mr. Andrew'...”

“I'm sure your students were very happy under you, Mr. Andrew,” Eiji said, with a bright, calming smile.

Over the intercom, Audrey said, “Okay, we're connected to the outside. Message sent. Once they clear the Ika Line's network, there should be a connection out to the broadcast tower, too.”

“Vespa!” Paige said, returning to her seat. “How are things in there?”

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Electopia Metropolitan Railway System Multi-Line Network_ **

Vespa and Stingray launched out of the windy tunnel, and both of them touched down in front of a crowd of NetNavis waiting in line to enter the tunnel itself. “Perfect landing!” Vespa said, turning her head to Stingray. “Not bad, partner.”

“Only the best from Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter's trusty partner,” Stingray said.

The multi-line server was much better-designed for the public—a dark, nighttime sky with simulated stars lit up in regular patterns, and graffiti-styled murals floated past on holographic windows around the transit lines between the railway towers. Each of the system's train lines were underneath a great pylon, and their landing platforms were surrounded by flashing light fixtures. In the center was a massive spire, stairs spiraling up it well into the sky.

“That'd be the broadcast tower, I guess,” Vespa said, “so we should head over there.”

“Er, sir, ma'am!” An employee Navi in a blue suit tried to hail them down, his hand shaky on his megaphone. “You're not supposed to... there are regulations!”

“In case you haven't noticed,” Vespa said, putting one hand on her hip and turning one backward toward the windy tunnel to eliminate one last straggler Pipi with her Buster, “there's a bit of an emergency. There's something up at the broadcast tower, so we're gonna head over there.”

“You can't just—”

Stingray swooped into the discussion and showed off his ID card. “Line Inspector Jet Stingray here. This concerned citizen is with me.”

“T-terribly sorry, sir!” the employee said, his posture going ramrod stiff. “Take a left at the first junction and head forward, you can't miss it!”

“You really can't,” Vespa said, cocking her head on it as she ran past the throes of Navis and leapt onto the now grounded transit rails. Stingray joined in, just behind her. “Okay, so what are we gonna do?”

“Whether it's viruses or a Navi,” Paige said, “we need to get to the broadcast tower and clear it out so the right signals can be sent.”

Underneath their feet, distortions in the signals were beginning to appear here, too—the network of rails were swapping around with each other, and leading to dead ends, instead of to other landing platforms. Vespa clicked her tongue. “Alright,” she said, looking up—but as she did, through those distortions, several aerial viruses launched up into the sky, forming a cloud in the airways. “Do we wanna chance ground or air?”

“Air's more my speed,” Stingray said. “Hop on!”

Stingray launched into a Hienkyaku, and Vespa leapt off of the rail to grab onto his back. As the two of them reached the air, a spotlight from the ground below caught sight of the two of them, as Vespa struck another pose to enter into full sight mode. She tapped her left eye, and a yellow visor flipped over her eyes.

With a smirk, Vespa declared, “Welcome to _my_ Fantasy Zone! **Get Ready.** ”

“This time, I can help out,” Stingray said, opening up his Ground Hunter salvos. “You take care of the guys in the air, I'll handle any ground troops.”

“Isn't being an air guy who just rams into people for his only dogfighting trick kinda tough?” Vespa asked, enabling her targeting function. She dragged her targeting reticles across a cloud of Pipis, and when she let her triggers go, a burst of shots tracked them down and obliterated them all in one fell swoop.

“Hey,” Stingray said, launching Ground Hunters down to target some Fanner viruses firing Tornado ground-to-air shots. “You'd be surprised.” He took a few photos of his handiwork, too.

“If you say so, Chief,” Vespa said, her eyes locking on to a group of Smokies disguising some Cloudies, spinning around under their parasols, ready to launch their rainclouds. Nothing could stop the Vesper Chasers from finding their target, though—with a heavy _boom_ , the Smokies and Cloudies both careened toward the ground, dissipating and burning up.

Some more powerful shots were launched, and Stingray looked down. “Heads up—some Hyper Boles are in the area.”

Vespa looked down. The heavy, tree trunk-like artillery installation viruses were indeed beginning to appear in the rail system, and charging up their electric blasts. Some Weather viruses, too, were blowing disruption onto the rails, freezing them or coating them in magma.

“Oh, hey,” Stingray said. “Good timing. Check this out.”

Launching a salvo of Ground Hunters, Stingray directed them toward the Weathers—but they passed underneath, and coated _themselves_ in the magma, absorbing it and increasing their speed as they then charged for the Boles, striking them directly and lighting the trees aflame. Vespa whistled. “Glad you didn't do that to me!”

“Yeah, you don't seem like you take fire that well,” Stingray agreed.

Not much could take a full homing blast of Vesper Chasers, so even the heavier Fighter Planes were going down after a moment in Vespa's reticles. One thing that could, though, were Windboxes, which were quite the heavy virus—and on back of some Fighter Planes, a wall of Windboxes began to encircle the tower, forming a defensive barrier that Vespa couldn't quite shoot down.

“Not sure I can ram through those too easy,” Stingray said. “It's gonna slow me down too much for a full-force Hienkyaku—”

“ _Time's up!_ ”

The sound of a clock ticking at incredible speed began to resound from somewhere, and a visible, watery distortion appeared in the midst of their formation. The Fighter Planes entering the distortion slowed to a crawl, leaving open holes in the formation. “Wha—?” Vespa blinked.

“Can I get a thank you?” Over the comms was Chronoforce's voice, of all people. Vespa and Stingray looked down to see him hanging out outside of another line's tunnel, with a window back open to his little cat game or whatever. “I was busy here.”

“You weren't busy with shit,” Audrey said. “Anyway, his Time Bomb should last long enough for you to get through.”

“Oh, so that's why they call him _Chrono_ force,” Vespa said, her eyes wide, nodding. “Cooool. Hey, can you teach me that trick sometime?”

“No,” Chronoforce said.

As the two of them approached closer to the tower, transmission from whoever was up there began to be audible. “—in tarnation is that big bubble?!” That was a woman's voice, with some sort of... what accent was that?

“I'm unsure, but it appears we have hostiles incoming,” and that was a man's voice. “Shall I launch the Mame-Qs, _ojou-sama_?”

“There one of them big whale fellers?” The woman said. “Shoot 'em there and let's trash these varmints!”

People were really beginning to make noise in the train car, and Vespa heard Eiji say, “Don't worry, Mr. Andrew. My friends are amazing NetBattlers, they'll be able to—Paige! Your folder is in... C, right?”

“Yes, it is—?” Paige started, but then cut herself off.

“It's Cinnamon's NaviChip!” Eiji said. “It'll be useful if Vespa takes any damage. Please, be careful!”

Paige went utterly silent for a few moments, until Vespa called out, “Hey, Paige! Ruminate on your friendship milestones later!”

“O-oh, right!” Paige said. Bulbous yellow-and-green viruses, three in total, with heads that looked like little light bulbs, launched out from the top of the tower, and gravitated toward the Whaler battleship. All three landed atop it, and the Whaler was enveloped in a pink glow, and began to directly aggress upon Vespa and Stingray. “What were those viruses?”

“MAME-Qs,” Audrey said. “Recent ones. They're man-made viruses that allow a Navi to directly control hostile viruses and power them up temporarily. It's short for 'Multi-Attachment Mechanical Engine type-Q', but a lot of laymen call them 'Bulbrites'.”

“Thank you for the trivia!” said someone on the train car.

“No problem, I'm full of it,” Audrey said back.

The Whaler shot missiles out of its mouth, careening toward Vespa and Stingray. It was all Vespa could do to shoot down its barrage—Stingray's evasive action wasn't quite enough to burst through. “Vespa! I just reordered our Folder again. Give me just one sec!”

“As long as you need, sweetheart,” Vespa said, the six exits on her guns all simultaneously lighting up for multi-shots to take care of the Whaler's cloud of missiles. Her receiver pinged, and—“Ah, I gotcha. Stingray, I'm gonna need to jump off of you for a sec. When the missiles are clear, ram the bastard, alright?”

“It's what I do best,” Stingray said.

Launching forward, Vespa used her first Chip to materialize a pair of sharp rapier-esque foils. The Red Stinger line's Stinger Foils gave her a brief burst of forward speed, and she leapt off of Stingray, dashing through the missile storm and coming down atop the Whaler. With a quick move, she stabbed once, twice, and then pulled them both out for a third and final stab. The White Capsule briefly halted its movements.

Vespa began to run across the Whaler's back, kicking a MAME-Q as she did for the fun of it, and then activated her third chip. The Geddon effect was meant to change terrain during NetBattles, cracking terrain beneath the Navis' feet, but in a situation like this, what it did was crack the Whaler's innards, lowering its structural integrity. Turning back around, Vespa fired upon a cloud of missiles, and shouted, “ _Now!_ ”

With a roar, Stingray burst forward, the last few missiles detonating against each other. Scoops let loose another North Wind to give him a boost, and he charged _directly through_ the Whaler. Vespa leapt off at the moment he came out the other end, and landed again on his back as he charged forward unharmed. Behind them, the Whaler detonated, taking out most of its virus compatriots with it. “Gone like so much algae waste,” Stingray said, tipping his cap as the two of them launched out of the fleet's airspace.

“ _Blister my bagpipes!_ ” The woman's transmission said. “What kinda loco nutsos are these two?!”

“Looks like we're gonna get to skip the stairs,” Vespa said, as the two approached the top of the tower. “Audrey, we got a connection in?”

“Should be good,” Audrey said. “Give this idiot what for.”

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Electopia Metropolitan Railway System ~ Broadcast Tower Server_ **

“ _Ojou-sama,_ I've received word that our _nakama_ at the Radio Tower in Elec Town have come under fire,” said the man's voice, as Vespa and Stingray swooped up to the top.

“Wha?! Gemblem and them?” The woman's voice shouted. “Hogtie that hogwash, you gotta be kiddin' me! By who?!”

The man... whinnied. “It matters not. When our great K- _sama_ and T- _sama_ see that you have wisely taken the initiative to complete your objective, their hearts will burst with a pride unrivalled by any other—”

Vespa and Stingray cruised over the side of the tower, and Vespa flipped off of Stingray's back to land feet-first on the top of the tower. Its tip was above them, and beneath it was a manual operation comms rig. Several Navis were unconscious on a few lower scaffolds, and Vespa and Stingray now landed on a great, gray, circular arena.

With a frown, Vespa said, “I hear you mention a 'K-sama'?”

Standing at the comms rig certainly wasn't an employee. Turning around, it became clear that this Navi was equine in nature—his white muzzle and armored, reverse-jointed hooves made that clear enough. A bright yellow piece of headgear, similar to an ancient Electopian straw hat, sat atop his head, blocking his eyes. His armor, too, was white and gold—segmented atop his aerodynamic body akin to a suit of samurai armor. Jagged golden wings sat atop his back, and they clearly weren't just for show, as he flapped them and created a gust of wind as he turned (for effect, presumably.)

“So I did,” the Navi said. “What business is it of yours?”

Vespa waved one of her Busters at her newfound opponent. “That mean you're with the Vile Numbers?”

With a low chuckle, the horse Navi looked down, and then with a swing of his arm, his hand morphed into a long, razor-sharp katana. Another gust of wind blew up his hat, which uncovered his bright yellow mane. He pointed his blade at Vespa, laughed again, and dramatically bellowed, “ _Nay!_ ”

Pause.

“Okay, yes, you're a horse,” Vespa said. “I get it. So are you with the—”

“Argh!” The Navi clutched his fist and stomped his hoof. “You ignoble _kisama_! That was not a 'neigh', it was a 'nay'! N-A-Y! A negative! I am not with the _Vile Numbers_ , you ancient relic!”

“Did he just call me old?” Vespa turned her head to Stingray, who nodded. “I'm not old! I'm like, nineteen!”

“From up close, there is no doubt that I recognize your personage,” the Navi said. “You are Vespa—the former Navi of the honorable Scuttler- _sensei_.” Vespa gritted her teeth, and furrowed her brow. “I have heard much of you, but somehow I had imagined you would have more of a sense of _bushido_ —not to be the sort of person who brings the _coward's weapon_ to a duel!”

“You know this guy?” Stingray said.

“If you're not with the Vile Numbers, then what're you doing with the old man?” Vespa asked. “And don't insult my Busters, these are my life's—”

“ _Baka!_ ” the Navi called out, throwing his head up to the sky as he did so. “Your pride is meaningless before the justice within our breasts.” He drew his second katana out from his hand, and struck a combat pose. “I am Pegasolta Eclair, of the noble Einherjar. Our noble cause shall not be halted by a traitor such as yourself! We are no criminals, only _senshi_ in a mighty campaign to—”

“Not a criminal?!” Paige cut in. “There's a man on this train whose heart is failing and we can't get him to a paramedic because you've caused trouble with the broadcast system!”

“There's _what now_?!” Pegasolta's operator began to sputter. “Heavens to marmoset, Peggie, there's a dyin' man on their train! You sure we should—”

“Listen to yourself, falling for their vile bluffs!” Pegasolta pointed one katana at Vespa, who slumped over and rolled her eyes. “All shall know your name, _ojou-sama_ , when your operation succeeds where the others' did not! You shall be the hero of our leaders' causes! Declare yourself proudly!”

“U-uh, you sure about that?” Pegasolta's operator said.

“ _One hundred percent!_ ” Pegasolta shouted. “Seeing through their claims is simply _asameshimae_!”

After taking a deep breath, Pegasolta's operator cleared her throat, and said, “That's r-right, you varmints! You ain't got a shot of pullin' one over on me, 'Whiplash' Makimura! You ain't got a snowball's chance in the Undernet—”

“Ohhhh!” Scoops said, audibly blinking. “I thought your voice sounded familiar. Hey, Makimura, what're you doing over there?”

Pause.

“H-” Makimura began stammering. “H-H-H-H-H-H- _Hanasakaaaaa?!_ ”

“You know _her_?” Paige said, her voice lilting in disbelief.

“Sure I do,” Scoops said. “Asahi Makimura, she went to middle and high school with us. Sweet kid, had a bad habit of getting in over her britches and falling for sob stories. Always got real loud whenever I was around, always went, ahhhh, I'll get one over on you one day, Hanasaka! Said she'd try and be a reporter, too, so she could be better than me, really not cut out for it, though. Gullible, but not a bad heart. Not a great NetBattler, either, though she might've improved. Where'd you pick up this wacko, Makimura? And what's with the accent?”

“W-w-w-w-” Asahi continued sputtering.

“Don't listen to this foul minstrel, _ojou-sama_!” Pegasolta declared. He stomped his hoof. “Makimura- _sama_ and I shall defeat you in an honorable duel, and I shall prove our mutual honor! Command me, milady! I shall be as your blade!”

“U-uhhh, y-yeah! Yeah, you're—yer darn right!” Asahi said. “I'm 'Whiplash' Makimura, of the Einherjar, and we're 'bout to tan yer hide!”

"Please," Eiji called out, "Asahi, please, you have to believe us! We—"

“ _Step forward, if you dare!_ ” Pegasolta said. “Which of the _o-baka-san-tachi_ wishes to be pulverized first?!”

Pause. “Oh well. You tried, Eiji." Scoops sighed. "You know I can tell you're not Electopian, right? You look like you're... somewhere from south Netopia, right? You're not a sa—”

“ _ **URUSAI!!!**_ ” Pegasolta screamed, and that was the end of that discussion.

After another moment's pause, Vespa stepped forward. “So what, you're just gonna fight one of us?”

“As is the law of _bushido_!” Pegasolta shifted one hand back into a hand and clenched his fist. “We shall duel, with _honor_!”

“Have fun,” Stingray said, casually strolling past their little duel field and heading over to the comms rig to start fixing it as they fought. Asahi said something, but Pegasolta wasn't listening, so the point was moot.

“Will do, Chief,” Vespa said. She pulled out her guns.

“Vespa, be careful! I don't think he's all hot air!” Paige said.

“I'll show you, and then I'll show Hanasaka, too!” Asahi declared. “I'm the best!”

“I'll show you a 'coward's weapon', you samurai poser!” Vespa said, aiming her guns.

“Here in the ring, we shall duel _seiseidoudou_!” Pegasolta said, drawing both of his blades.

**““Battle routine, set!””**

**_“Execute!” “HAJIME!”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Duo Spotlight!
> 
> Eiji Kikuchi: The nurse's assistant at Ayanokoji Net College, his dream in life is to become the first human medic to be able to treat both humans and NetNavis. To this end, he studies under his tutor, the NetNavi Cinnamon. He's always been quite popular, owing to his beautiful, feminine good looks, great fashion sense, and genuinely kind and altruistic personality. However, he is a terrible NetBattler. He and Scoops are childhood friends, and he often looks after her when she injures herself in the name of chasing a lead. The Kikuchi family is very traditionally Electopian, and is one of the primary experts in the ancient ceremony of the Electopian tea ceremony—as such, Eiji, as their prodigal son, is truly the embodiment of the 'Yamato nadeshiko'. He has a younger sister, and is also adept at taking care of animals, due to a veterinary course he took to care for the family's pet dog.
> 
> Cinnamon: A wandering Navi who made a name for herself as a battlefield medic, she was eventually hired on as the Kikuchi family's live-in medic, as well as a tutor for their son, Eiji. The two quickly bonded, and despite her at-times questionable and downright shady personality, Cinnamon has faithfully served with a smile ever since. Despite her own combat capabilities being nothing to shake a stick at, she is an ardent pacifist, though some claim she could probably become an adept blackmailer if she so wished. Her origins are shrouded in mystery, but given her face, whoever made her must've been downright strange. She has her own admirers at Ayanokoji independent of Eiji's, due to her threateningly motherly personality. She is very shrewd with Zenny, and reportedly once made 1000 Zenny last her an entire two months while independent.


	10. Episode 3-V2: The Masked Warrior

The first move went to Pegasolta, who swung his left blade horizontally, then his right blade vertically, and then finally swung the two of them in an X pattern to launch a Sonic Boom projectile at Vespa. Vespa was able to dodge this mighty attack by idly walking over to the left when she had a spare moment. “ _Bakana!_ ” Pegasolta gasped, making some grunting noises or something. “To dodge my Sonic Boom technique... this battle shall not be easy, Makimura- _sama_ , but do not be discouraged! Together—”

“Do you _ever_ stop talking?” Vespa asked, loading up a pair of Buster Up modifications before laying in with full-auto fire. “Seriously, I'm supposed to be the chatty one in any given fight.”

“ _Kuh!_ ” Pegasolta staggered back from the force of Vespa's rapid blasts. “The coward's weapon foils me once more!”

“Dagnabbit, Peggie, do the thing!” Asahi shouted. “You have a thing for this! Do the thing!”

Since the blasts weren't _actually_ staggering him, though, Pegasolta stood up, and with a “At once, _ojou-sama_!” he raised his right hand. The katana on it rocketed forward, connected by a chain. “Taste my blade, foul projectiles!” A blast of wind shot out from the chain's connection, and the katana began to _spin_ , creating a whirling fan that carved Vespa's bullets in two as they rocketed toward it. Pegasolta's fan blade returned to his right hand, and he charged forward, 'shield' in hand.

“Okay, so you've actually got a trick or two,” Vespa said. She smirked. “Good, good. At least you aren't too boring.” On foot, though, she was much faster than Pegasolta, so she was able to dodge past his charging slash with ease, rolling to the right on his shield side—

“Pegasolta, _launch_!”

“Eh?” Vespa looked to where he just was, and lo and behold, there he... wasn't.

“Vespa, dodge backwards!” Paige shouted, and Vespa obeyed, backflipping out of the way as Pegasolta descended from the air with a double-bladed stab directly downwards. “His wings aren't the only flight he has—he can boost off of the ground from his feet!”

“Wow, folks,” Scoops commented, “she's even went and got herself a flying Navi, too.”

“Y-you can it back there!” Asahi shouted. “Pegasolta is tougher than your Stingray, Hanasaka! I—” She cleared her throat. “Peggie!”

Pegasolta nodded. “At once, _ojou-sama_! _Shadow-Severing Flash Fang ~ Flash Stinger!_ ” He threw his blades wide, and several pieces flew off of his wings, making clear their true purpose—they flicked open into independent bits, which began to float around him. Each of them began to charge with cyclonic energy and formed whipping gusts into lance shapes, and entered into a V-formation behind their owner. “ _Launch!_ ”

“Thanks for the heads _uuuuuuuuuuup?!_ ” Vespa said, ducking low to the ground and dodging just beneath Pegasolta as he launched forward with a piercing thrust. She fired upon the lance that followed just behind him to slow it down and let herself roll out of the way again, as the others launched just behind Pegasolta and stopped in the air behind him. “Whoa, okay!”

“We've gotta stop him!” Paige said. Chip data—received.

Vespa grinned. “Huh, awfully on brand. When'd you get this?”

“I can shop at my own store,” Paige answered. With a snap of her finger, a White Web chip activated, creating a spiderweb net just beneath Pegasolta's feet. As he dramatically turned to face Vespa again, he found himself unable to launch, struggling against it. “I've got something ready for later, if you can just hold out, too!”

“I'm great at holding out!” Vespa said, lunging forward and leaping over the webs to strike Pegasolta while he was open. The Stinger Foils directly connected while her opponent was distracted trying to free himself, and Vespa launched backwards as Pegasolta froze in place even further from the paralysis.

“No worries, Peggie, Mama's gotcha!” Asahi said. “Code—ON! Shiny Rain, go!”

“The name of the technique is _Downpour of Light Pillars ~ Luminous Rain_ , Makimura- _sama_ ,” Pegasolta said, as his Wing Bits flew off again and began to position themselves with red targeting beams toward Vespa. Vespa ducked her head out of the way of one to avoid the laser blast that came out of it, and the series of dodges she had to pull out to dodge out of the way of all of them almost looked like some sort of strange dance, from a distance.

Still, she did manage to dodge them, skidding backwards to reposition herself and stand back up. “What's with the fancy names?” Vespa asked, spinning her Busters on her fingers.

“It is the way of things when you are an honorable _senshi_ ,” Pegasolta said, brandishing his blades again. He smirked. “Not that you would know anything about that! _Tah!_ ”

Breaking free of the web, Pegasolta blasted forward again, a trail of fading afterimages flying behind him. Vespa leapt backwards, but then—“We got 'er,” Asahi said, with a smug chuckle.

Underneath her as she leapt, Vespa saw a _sixth_ Wing Bit, embedded in the ground. The light around it was slightly refracted, and as it turned out, Pegasolta hadn't been aiming for Vespa at all—his blades swung against his own armament. “Vespa, it's a _Prism_!” Paige shouted. “Wa—”

It was too late for that. Pegasolta's strike struck his Prism, and the attack was reflected all around it, redirecting the force of his blade right into Vespa's face. Wailing in pain, Vespa flew back and fell onto the ground. “ _Vespa!_ ”

“Wha—she actually _did_ get better,” Scoops muttered.

“The honorable Pegasolta Eclair, _ikimasu_!” Pegasolta cried, redirecting his blades to knock his Prism Bit into the air with a rising slash. This, thankfully, didn't strike Vespa, but she wasn't going to stay lucky—the other five Wing Bits refocused around Pegasolta. “ _Glaring Condemnation of Ruinous Light ~ Judgment Ray!_ ”

The spread caused by firing these lasers through the Prism meant that even if Vespa hadn't been recoiling from the earlier strike, there was no way she could escape this. All five Wing Bits fired directly through the Prism, creating a focused laser which seared Vespa's body. It _hurt_ , it hurt a _lot_ —it'd been ages since Vespa had been hit by an attack this strong, and searing light, the feeling of sensing her data slowly wither away under a heavy blast, was still absolutely nightmarish. When the blast faded, Vespa, teeth gritted, started forcing herself up off the ground. “Are you ready to admit defeat?” Pegasolta said, raising his head to the sky with a whinny.

“Go to hell,” Vespa spat, staggering up off of the ground. “Paige, hurry up!”

“But I—” Paige paused. “Wait... okay! Please don't get yourself hurt anymore, you can't take it! Just a sec!”

“I do my best work under pressure,” Vespa said, spitting a few fragments of loose data out of her mouth. “Hey, bucko. I mighta needed those. You gonna pay me back if I just lost a security code or something...?”

“Uh,” Asahi muttered, “h-how much Zenny do I have. Uh, how much would you need?”

“Rhetorical question,” Vespa said, her hair falling over her eyes a bit more than usual. “Thanks for the thought, though.”

Pegasolta, feet on the ground, began again to advance. “ _Ojou-sama_ , your kindness is truly most _subarashii_.” Two of his bits launched off and stuck into the ground, to either side of Vespa. “ _Whirlwind of Interpersonal Connection ~ Cyclone Interceptor!_ ”

Around Vespa, the two bits shot forth gusts of wind to connect to each other in a chain. Vespa stepped forward to dodge them, and again Pegasolta thrust forward with a _Flash Stinger_ , three of his other bits trailing behind him to form a diamond with him at the bottom. Vespa ducked downward, and—“Thanks for this one, Paige!”

This time, the Flame Hit chip manifested around Vespa's fist, as she delivered a brutal uppercut to Pegasolta's muzzle. As he cried out with a distressed whinny, his momentum shifted upward to collide with his uppermost Wing Bit, rendering him victim to its shredding gale. She didn't have the finger dexterity at the moment to spin her guns like she might've wanted, but she could sure fire them. Pegasolta, for a short but all-too-painful time, was bounced between his own Bit and Vespa's bullets like a pinball before the alignment shifted and he landed on the ground.

“My mastery of the _ukemi_ is second to none!” Pegasolta called out, and he quickly recovered despite the heavy damage he'd just taken. “Taste this technique! _Gallop of V's Demise ~ Inazuma Drop!_ ”

“Wha—don't count your chickens 'fore they caw, Peggie, that's—!” Asahi called out.

Unfortunately for her, the headstrong Pegasolta had already leapt into the air, and was charging toward Vespa with a 'net' of gusts ready to catch her. “No worries, Vespa,” Paige said. “You've got this!”

“Nah,” Vespa said with a smirk, “she does.”

Of course, that charge required him to not run directly into something, and run into something Pegasolta did. His net instead caught the NaviChip apparition of _Cinnamon_ , who Vespa had summoned into existence. Unfazed by the capture, the fascimile of Cinnamon manifested a jack-in-the-box, and she put it forward toward Pegasolta's face with a casual 'ω' on her face.

With an almost comical _sproinging_ sound, a boxing glove launched out of the box, rendering Pegasolta's forward momentum totally inert and causing him to float down to the ground, his muzzle slightly compressed from the punch. Cinnamon, for her part, turned and clasped her hands together before disappearing in a white light, which had the fortunate side-effect of healing some of Vespa's vitality.

“Woo,” Stingray said, still tapping away at the console. “Go, Vespa.”

Pegasolta grunted, and stomped his foot. “This was meant to be a _seiseidoudou_ one-on-one duel!”

“You've got six helpers,” Vespa said, pointing her Buster at him. “I was just evening the playing field. And isn't it two-on-two?”

“ _Urusai!_ ” Pegasolta waved his blade to the side to silence Vespa's mouth, however well that was going to work. “Makimura- _sama_ , do I have your permission to unleash my fullest form of _bushido_?”

“...Wha?” Vespa couldn't see Asahi, but was sure she was probably blinking in confusion.

“May I please use my spectacular _Hi-Ougi_ to finish this duel in our glorious—”

“Y-you just _use the move_ if you gotta,” Asahi sputtered, “don't tell everyone in a kilometer radius!”

“It is only fair to declare a strike this powerful! After all,” Pegasolta said, calling back his hat from wherever he'd sent it to so that he could tip it, “there is no way you could possibly evade this greatest of all strikes! _Toah!_ ” Sending his wings wide, a gust of wind blew through the top of the tower, and the area around Pegasolta began to crackle with light.

“Yeah, sure, pal,” Vespa said. “I can evade a lot, y'knowwww... uhhh...”

A Prism Bit formed in front of Pegasolta, but rather than go for a Luminous Ray, the five other Wing Bits formed into a larger blade. Pegasolta launched up his two arm katanas, as well, shifting back to regular limbs as the blades merged together. His hands both grasped a colossal, glowing blade, which seemed to almost burst at the seams with glowing light.

“With my flashing blade / I battle for my lady / to regain honor! _Light Blade of Demise ~ Blade of Zero, **Phosphoratorium!**_ ” Pegasolta swung down his blade, and its force briefly _inverted the light_ , placing the entire arena in a photonegative filter.

Then—“Vespa, it's reached max power! _Sending it now!_ ”

As she holstered her Busters, black clusters of corrupted data began to gather around Vespa's right fist. The twisted form of manifest Bug Fragments shifted into a wolf-like maw around her hand, the power bursting from within its deep red eyes clear as it roared so thoroughly as to render static that disrupted the photonegative of Pegasolta's Zero Blade.

“—What?” Audrey muttered over the intercom. “Gospel?!”

Vespa felt the wolf on her hand link up with her programming, and she gritted her teeth into a wolfish grin of her own. “You like it, huh? Maybe we'll get along. Here's a super move for you, Peggie!”

As Pegasolta launched forward to strike the Prism Bit with his Zero Blade, Vespa held her right arm with her left. “Bug Charge complete! Activating _Vanishing World!_ ”

The head of the Multibug Organism atop Vespa's fist opened up, and it breathed out a colossal beam of pure white toward the Prism Bit. No matter how fast Pegasolta could move, he wasn't faster than light itself—his own Prism Bit shattered under the force of the beam, but not before reflecting it into his Zero Blade, shattering it to pieces.

As the blade shattered in his hands, Pegasolta looked down to see that he was right in the path of the attack—while the beam itself had been partially diverted, the phantom maws of the Multibug Organism it manifested from the errors within Vespa's programming had smelled blood, and hunted him down with a hateful ferocity. “ _Pegasoltaaaa!_ ” Asahi shouted, as they stacked onto each other, pummeling straight into his chest, blowing him back with a force that made clear that no AUTO System could prevent that from being his defeat.

And then—the distortions finished, and the two warriors were left. Only one remained standing. Vespa chuckled under her breath. “You're pretty good, horsey.” She fell to one knee to rest for a moment. “Where the hell'd you get _that_ one, Paige...?”

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Electopian Metropolitan Railway System ~ Broadcast Tower Server_ **

“I, uh,” Paige said, stammering under her breath in that way that made Vespa sure she was twiddling her fingers, “well, I was digging through our Chip Trader since Nori says that I can have pick of anything that doesn't look commercially viable, you know, and I found that one. I don't know who put it in there, but it didn't seem like something most Navis could use?”

“And Vespa could?!” Scoops said.

“Well, you know,” Paige said. That was her 'twiddling her hair' voice. No, Paige, people didn't know.

Vespa stood up again and pushed her hair out of her face, other than that one annoying lock. She wiped some sweat from her brow, and walked over. “Okay. We clear here? That was my win, right, big guy?” She reached her hand out toward Pegasolta.

“U...urgh... g-huh... kuh...” Pegasolta moaned. “Do what you will, _hakaishin_ Vespa... I am at... your mercy...!”

“I'm helping you up, dude,” Vespa said.

“Oh,” Pegasolta said, and shakily reached up to take her hand to stand up. “ _Arigato?_ ”

“Listen,” Vespa said, raising her hands. “I can tell you two are just dumb, not evil. Hey, Paige, can you turn the cam on and point the PET at Mr. Andrew?” She did so, and Vespa displayed the camera feed of Eiji and Cinnamon caring for Mr. Andrew, who was still covered in sweat due to his very real heart difficulties on the floor of the car.

“Oh my god,” Asahi said, “there really is a dying man on the floor of the train car, _I'm so stupid oh my god._ ”

“...G- _gomenasai_ ,” Pegasolta said, gritting his teeth and looking away awkwardly, tipping his hat over his eyes. “I-I have brought shame to myself, and Makimura- _sama_ , and our leaders!”

“You sure have,” Stingray commented.

“What did you get yourself wrapped up in this time, Makimura?” Scoops said, no doubt rolling her eyes.

Vespa helped Pegasolta stagger over to the console, as he was still quite injured from the pounding he'd just received... not that Vespa was doing too hot, herself. “My sincerest _gomenasai_ s, _hontou_ ,” Pegasolta said. “Had I known that I would be putting innocent lives in danger I really do assure you that neither I nor Asahi would have—that is to say, that Makimura- _sama_ would never have shown such indiscretion as to attempt to use this broadcast tower in the middle of the day.”

“It was your idea!” Asahi said. “You were the one who was all, 'Oh, K and T might've said not to do it in the middle of the day, but if you take this tower so decisively then surely you will be the pride of we noble Einherjar!'”

“I... cannot deny that,” Pegasolta said. Both Vespa and Stingray shook their heads and scoffed. “D-don't scoff at me! My logic was sound!”

“Seriously, kids,” Vespa said, “it's best not to get wrapped up in any organization that involves you working with Dr. Scuttler. The old man never really gets up to anything great.”

“To be sure,” Pegasolta said, “I find the man rather distasteful myself.”

“Definitely a creep,” Asahi said.

“But his position is more that of an _independent contractor_ , so to speak... that is to say...” Pegasolta waved his hands a bit. “Er—”

And that, of course, is when a shredding electric guitar riff rang out around the broadcast tower. Vespa froze. “Uh, did you hear that?” Stingray said.

“Oh, _come on_ ,” Vespa said, leaning against the console. “Can today not just end already?”

The intercom atop the console briefly sputtered with feedback before saying, “Nahhhhh.” Everyone at the console turned their head, as the spotlights atop the tower shifted to a point off the stage. On a rising platform of scrap, the guitar sound came ever closer until its player drifted into view.

Another NetNavi had entered the fray—and this one, Vespa recognized as soon as she saw him. This Navi was based on a bird of prey, the vulture, and his long, beaky head, cast in black and white, was meant to both resemble a vulture's head and a human skull. The skull theming was a motif all across his armor, appearing on the shoulderpads covering his spindly arms, the armor on his chassis, and spiked kneepads on his thin legs. Green hands with white claws played the strings on a heavy, sparkling-white battle axe that doubled as an electric guitar. Dark green spirals of feathers ran across his arms and legs, crossing together in X shapes as though to form stitching akin to a sort of metal rocker. Though he was turned forward, Vespa knew that on his back, in place of a bird's actual wings were defensive wings meant to protect the speaker rig on his back.

“Heyyyyy,” the guitar-playing vulture said, “heard there was a pretty sick show going on. Thought I'd drop by.” He leapt off of the platform of scrap, which fell apart as he stopped playing his guitar. His usual posture was hunched over, but he was definitely capable of standing upright, which he did to rub the back of his head. “Geez. Kids these days, am I right, H? Oh—wait, it's V now, right. My B.”

“Of all the—” Vespa drew her Busters again. “Who said you could show your ugly mug here, Vulturon?”

“Well, this little sting operation of ours seems to have gone off the rails thanks to a certain _someone_ going _off the rails_ ,” Vulturon said, moving a little bit of scrap from somewhere to snap his fingers to an invisible beat in his head, “you feel me? Yours truly was a bit bored, so I figured I'd make something of this.”

“Vulturon, you ignoble _kisama_!” Pegasolta shook his fist. “This was an honorable one-on-one match which I rightfully lost! You have no right entering!”

“Wow!” Vulturon laughed. “Check out how much I really don't care. See, this is the problem with these bleeding heart kids, am I right? No sense for getting things _done_.”

“Vespa, who is this guy exactly?” Paige asked.

“He's the...” Vespa looked upward. “Probably like the fifth-strongest guy in the old Vile numbers, and the old leader's right-hand man.”

“ _Fifth_?” Vulturon snorted. “Who you counting as fourth, then? _You?_ ” He began idly strumming his guitar.

“Nah, I was thinking Queenie,” Vespa said. Stingray looked at her like she was speaking Esperanto. “I'm a lot tougher than I was then, though.”

“Heh. 'Fifth-strongest', I like that. Let's say I'm the fifth-strongest guy in the Einherjar now, too,” Vulturon said. “Oh, wait—”

““You confounded wretch, your black as pitch heart has no right calling itself a true Einherjar!””

Vulturon slapped his knee and wheezed a bit as Pegasolta sputtered from the dead-on call-out. “Oh, yeah, that's the good stuff. Anyway, we need this broadcast tower for a bit at some point, so might as well be now, right?”

“Sir, there's a man who desperately needs the paramedics on this train!” Paige cried out.

“Spicy!” Vulturon replied. “Really bold of you to assume I care, honestly.”

“Paige, hurry up and start arming me,” Vespa said. “We gotta take care of this guy.”

“But—you're all beat up!” Paige said, no doubt rubbing her forehead. “I can't just let you—”

“Oh, no worries,” Vulturon said. “I'd be deleting you whether you were ready or not. Hey, check this out, right?” The strumming he'd been doing on his guitar increased in intensity, and then—

Vespa's eyes raised up. She saw certain parts of the Whalers she'd destroyed earlier sticking out of the colossal sphere of scrap that Vulturon raised over the side of the tower with his guitar. “So, either you run away like good little kids, or I make you a splatter on the ground.”

“Stingray, I really hope you're ready to fight!” Scoops said, as Stingray turned and began to ready his Ground Hunters.

“As I'll ever be, I guess,” Stingray said. “Not really the best place for it, though.”

Vespa gritted her teeth, and aimed her Busters at Vulturon's scrap sphere. “He's not joking, Paige, he's gonna delete all three of us. Seriously,” she said. “ _This_ guy's not dumb.”

“But you're—you're not in shape to fight! You might—I don't—” Paige was hyperventilating into the mic. “No, please, no... I don't wanna lose you, Vespa, I don't—what do I—?!”

—And then the issue was resolved, as the scrap sphere split cleanly in two, falling to the ground and being consumed by some force even as it fell, preventing Vulturon from reconstituting it,

as a fifth Navi appeared on the top of the tower, brandishing the broadsword which had cleaved Vulturon's massive weapon. “There's no place here for someone like you, Vulturon,” the Navi said, and to Vespa's ears that sounded like a woman's voice. “Leave.”

“Gh—?! Blade?!” Vulturon flinched at the sight of this new Navi.

She wore a heavy black cloak over most of her body, with a glowing green inside and accents upon her shoulders. Atop her head was a silver helmet, adorned with two gleaming horns straight up, one shorter and one longer—they reminded Vespa of a rhinoceros beetle, almost. The only part of her body underneath that was visible was her uncovered mouth and chin, but that and her stance was clear enough to make her obviously humanoid. Glowing green eyes gave a piercing gaze to Vulturon, and the clawed gauntlets and spike-tipped metal greaves she wore helped accentuate the fact that she had a shining silver sword, with a segmented blade that looked as though it could split and yellow energy running through its center.

“Did I stammer?” 'Blade' said, her sword not moving. “Leave, Vulturon. The sight of you makes me sick.” She cocked her head backwards to Pegasolta. “You, too. The time for pleasantries has ended. If you aren't going to give up on that cause of yours, you should go.”

“Er—ah, yes, ma'am,” Pegasolta said. He turned his head to Vespa and Stingray. “T-to be sure, I'm sure you both know that if we meet again it may be as enemies, but having witnessed Vespa- _san_ 's combat prowess I shall respect you and yours as equals in the ring and battle you with no malice! _Sayonara_!”

“Wha—?” Vespa blinked, and Pegasolta had jacked out.

Vulturon, for his part, was stopping to weigh his options, idly looking around. “Huh. Well, I guess I can take a hint. Geez, lady, you've gotta stop cramping my style.”

“Unfortunately,” Blade said, “I think your style sucks.”

“Ta, then! See you later, V!” With a two-claw salute, Vulturon leapt backwards off of the side of the tower, and he, too, was gone.

Blade sheathed her sword and hurried over to the console. “What's the situation?”

“Well, seems like they were trying to connect to two other towers for triangulating _something_ or another,” Stingray said, turning back, “and it messed up the regular broadcast. But thankfully, we should be good—” He pushed one last key. “Now. How's it looking?”

There was an obvious lurch through the mic. “The train's starting to move,” Audrey said. “Okay, shouldn't be too long—”

The sound of people cheering was _deafening_ through the mic, and Vespa could make out more than a few people tearfully thanking Paige and Scoops for saving them. She laughed to herself, and turned off that side of the mic for the time being. Stingray did the same. “They've got that,” Vespa said. Being able to relax a moment, she walked over to the center of the tower and sat down. A few remaining viruses were being cleaned up around the area. “Thanks for the assist,” she said. “I'm not sure I could've taken him, honestly.”

Blade didn't sit down, but she stood next to Vespa, staring over into the horizon. Stingray was there, too. “You should be more honest with your physical state,” Blade said. “Someone in your state shouldn't be taking such heavy hits.”

“Hey,” Vespa laughed under her breath, “what do you know about my _state_?”

“I'm not stupid,” Blade said. “Any layman with a basic knowledge of Scuttler-made Navi builds would know that the cohesiveness of your data is at a maximum of forty-five percent, and I'd spitball it at closer to thirty-five. Even had people's lives not been in peril, I couldn't have let you go into battle against him in that state.”

“Just checking,” Stingray chimed in, “are we talking about _the_ Dr. Scuttler? Heinrich Scuttler?”

“Infamous for his work in the creation of 'anti-antiviral' programs, yes,” Blade said. “Father of the Scuttle line of viruses. Any layman with a basic knowledge of his work would be able to tell right off that she's a Scuttler Navi.”

Vespa snorted. “Oh yeah? I find people have a pretty hard time figuring it out.”

“...of course, I myself am not a layman with basic knowledge, so it's possible that my viewpoint is a touch biased,” Blade said.

“And what are you?” Vespa asked.

“At the moment, you could call me a 'concerned citizen',” Blade said. “I was made aware that this operation by the Einherjar was taking place, and I was on my way anyhow. I hadn't been expecting citizens on the train to move into operation... and even less so for one to be Dr. Scuttler's former Navi.”

“Hey, that was eight years ago!” Vespa waved her hand around. “I'm just a concerned citizen, myself.” She jabbed a thumb in Stingray's direction. “He's a line inspector, though, apparently, so it was his job.”

“I see,” Blade said. She walked toward the edge of the tower. “Unfortunately, I shouldn't stay long. For your sake, I hope this is the end of your troubles.”

“Hey—he said your name was Blade, right?” Vespa said, standing back up. “You know what these guys' deal is, right? Can you help us out here? We've got—”

“I have someone waiting for me, but perhaps if we run into each other again,” Blade said. She looked over her shoulder. “Vespa. To be honest, I've wanted to meet you for a long time.”

—“Huh?” was all Vespa could get out before Blade drew her sword and jabbed it into the air. It _extended_ , splitting apart into a form almost like a whip, and clung on to a small floating diode for her to launch herself away with. Vespa blinked as Blade disappeared into the distance. “Whoa. I wish I had a grappling hook.”

“You could get a grappling hook,” Stingray said.

“Maybe I should get a grappling hook,” Vespa said, rubbing her chin.

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: “Ika Line” ~ Manzo Historical District Stop_ **

Being left without her Navi as a bunch of passengers came up to personally thank the brave young women who'd managed to restart the car was somewhere up there on Paige's top twenty nightmare premises, but thankfully, Scoops was able to handle doing enough talking for the both of them with aplomb. Paige shook some hands of crying people who'd been paying rapt attention to what they could gleam of what was going on, and at least a few people said to thank her brave, brave Navi, too.

It was still going on when the train finally pulled into the station, where paramedics were already waiting to receive Mr. Andrew. Paige, Eiji, Cinnamon, Scoops, and the heavy-set man whose seat Paige had stolen all helped to transport Mr. Andrew to an ambulance. “Such brave young people these days,” he muttered, “such brave young people, thank you ever so much, ladies...”

“Actually, I'm a man, sir,” Eiji said.

“Very good, I'm happy for you,” Mr. Andrew said.

People hurrying off the train kept thanking Paige and Scoops as the ambulance drove off, and eventually, Audrey managed to slouch her way out of the train before the Officials arrived to investigate. She scratched her hair as she headed toward the other four. “So,” Audrey said, “that just happened.”

“Got a bit of a hero complex, huh, Paige?” Scoops said with a toothy grin. Paige blushed and looked away. “You did great, honest! We did great.” She reached up and put her hand on Paige's shoulder. “Good work, team!” Second hand on Eiji's shoulder. “Audrey, get over here, time for a group hug!”

“No,” Audrey said, before she was absorbed into the group hug by Cinnamon. “I don't do group hugs, come on.”

“Don't be such an edgelord,” Scoops said.

Paige was still only half there as Vespa and Stingray finally returned to their PETs. “That was entirely too much work for one day,” Vespa said, “I am _beat_. Can I have my CopyBot back?”

“Of course,” Cinnamon said with a wave, before a quick swap occurred and—(Paige quickly dressed the CopyBot to Vespa's specifications)—Vespa was back in the physical world. “Have fun out there!” Cinnamon said. “And you did great, Eiji. Fantastic work.”

“Seriously,” Vespa said, putting her arm around Eiji, who wilted slightly. “You saved a guy's life there, Eiji. What a good kid.”

“No, no, I really do have much more work to do before... that is to say, um...” Eiji's eyes darted between Paige and Audrey for help evading compliments, but neither of them had any to give. “Er... thank you, Vespa.”

Staring out from the train station, Scoops looked out and whistled. As it turned out, the Manzo stop on the Ika Line was right in the middle of a public park, so the group could look out into a veritable sea of trees and greenery, stationed atop a small creek. Paige took a deep breath in of the fresh air, and looked down at the slightly damp soil beneath the footpath out of the station. The houses she could see were close together, and all looked to have old walls—though they did still seem pretty sturdy.

“The Manzo Historical District was originally a bed town for the workers who worked at and constructed the Gargoyle Castle in End City, but wound up developing its own identity due to the unusually clean water originating from underground springs in the soil, as well as its small population, meaning that it was an especially safe place for fugitives from the law from other nations to escape to once Electopia's borders were opened,” Scoops said. “Many of them were wrongfully sentenced or imprisoned, and as it turned out, that many people with that shared backstory in the area led Manzo to become one of the _least_ criminal areas in the nation—and even now, it has the lowest crime rate of any district in the major populated areas of Electopia by a landslide. It's a lovely place to do business, I tell you.”

“Do you give this spiel to _every_ foreigner you take here?” Audrey said, the bags under her eyes accentuating the glare she gave Scoops.

“You betcha!” Scoops pumped her fists.

“Oh!” Paige started. “Um, Eiji...” She fished Cinnamon's NaviChip out of her pocket. “Here you go. Thank you for letting me borrow it,” she said, handing it back to him.

Eiji, though, looked down at the Chip, then shook his head and smiled. “No, please keep it. I'd be very happy if it kept being useful for you.”

Pause.

“Um, P-Paige?” Eiji said, his smile slowly turning upside-down. Paige had completely frozen in her tracks, staring wide-eyed at him. “H-have I said something wrong?”

Then Paige started tearing up. “Oh, geez,” Vespa said, hurrying over. “Hey, Paige, don't turn on the waterworks, c'mon.”

“T-that's the...” Paige sniffled. “That's the first time... anyone's ever given me a NaviChip...” She sniffled harder, and it sounded more like a honk now. Eiji was much more clearly dismayed, and leaned in to try and dry her tears. “Thank youuuu... I'll treasure it with my life, I swear!”

“I'm very glad it makes you happy,” Eiji said, “b-but please don't cry, Paige! I didn't mean to make you cry!”

“See?” Cinnamon said from his PET. “Such charms this boy has. Fleuve could never measure up to him.”

“No doubt about that one,” Scoops said, yukking it up in the background.

Audrey, for her part, hung back, her eyes landing on Vespa. “A Navi whose body can handle an instance of a Multibug Organism inside it, huh? Chronoforce... let's try to not NetBattle her for any stakes if we can handle it.”

“Were you planning on it, Boss Lady?” Chronoforce asked. “That sounds like a drag.”

“No, but you know me,” Audrey said. Her eyes shined. “I can't help but find it interesting.”

“Well, at least we know where you get that,” Chronoforce said. “I think you'd find it a lot easier if you just stopped having so many thoughts. Take in the sights for a sec, isn't it pretty out there?”

“I guess so,” Audrey said. “But maybe you'd—”

“Quit brooding over there,” Vespa said, quickly stepping over and tugging Audrey by the hand toward the gate of the station. “We're leaving!”

“Hey, don't interrupt my brooding!” Audrey said.

—Incidentally, an Official radio broadcast had the following to say.

“ _Attention, all officers. Please ignore the situation reported at the DNN broadcasting station on Beach Street and cover other reported incidents. The Hikaris have handled it. Again. Over._ ”

* * *

_(ED:[ NEO VENUS](https://youtu.be/sjc_zWAPsuc), by JANNE DA ARC)_

_**On the Next: Battle Network Vespa.EXE!** _

_Oshiete, Venus, boku no tsubasa wa ima mo_

_(Tell me, Venus, my wings -)_

_Mada shiroku kagayai teru ka?_

_(Are they still shining bright?)_

With their tumultuous train ride over, Paige, Vespa, and their friends go to visit the ace detective, Yuu Himekago. However, it's not just a simple business trip that awaits them in the Manzo Historical District.

_Goran yo, Venus, me no mae no joukei o_

_(Hey, Venus, was I wrong)_

_Mesashi ta boku wa machigatte nai ka?_

_(to go for the scene before my eyes?)_

With her encounter with their new enemies fresh in her mind, Vespa finds that the police in Manzo appear to have a situation on their hands. The Einherjar may have more than one leader, but amidst a criminal investigation on the 'net, Vespa may have found one—a figure who resembles the very Great Thief they're hunting!

_Itsumo chira katta bazuru no yo na kokoro to_

_(While my heart was in disarray,)_

_Miushinai kake teta yume o_

_(like an incomplete puzzle, it was you)_

_Mou ichido ochie te kure tano wa…_

_(who taught me how to remember)_

_Anata deshi ta_

_(the dreams I’d half-forgotten.)_

An old murder case—a curious Navi claiming to be Devilbat Schilt himself—the cloaked warrior known only as Blade—the theft of Gaudile's Erosion Key—what is the thread which ties them all together? And whose hands are those pulling the strings?

_VENUS, NEO VENUS, together!_

_Hikari no sasu hou he_

_(To where the light points,)_

_Mukai kaze no naka demo kumo o muke te_

_(even if we have to go against the wind and clouds)_

_Boku wa kotae o sagasu darou_

_(I’ll search for the answer,)_

_Soshite anata o hanashi wa shi nai_

_(and I’ll never let you go.)_

Next time, on Battle Network Vespa.EXE:

**Episode 4: The Great Detective's First Account! A Grisly Deletion in Manzo**

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”


	11. Episode 4-P: Local Tradition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To those reading, I'm sorry about the long wait. I'm working on three projects simultaneously, and I'd been in a bit of a slump for most of December. Thank you for waiting patiently, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Himekago Detective Agency_ **

In these days of ubiquitous electronic signs, the old-fashioned swappable open/closed sign that sat in Detective Himekago's window was a curiosity that stood out even despite the building's nondescript nature. Aside from its dark coat of paint and a small placard placed atop the door, and this very sign, it did not stand out from the buildings it was sat next to.

The fact that the good detective appeared to not be in did not help. Scoops's fists pounded on the wooden door, as she sunk down to the ground (not that it made much difference for her height). “He's supposed to be open right noooow!” she wailed to the uncaring door.

“Could he be investigating?” Paige asked.

“I mean, yeah, probably, but that's a pain!” Scoops stood back up and huffed, her hands on her waist. “I—”

Audrey looked up from her PET, having been casually tapping away for some time. “There's some cops converging a few blocks away,” she said. Vespa and Eiji peeked over—she'd managed to find police surveillance data within that short time somehow.

“Breaking with rank and file... Waste Scoops Hanasaka's time, will he?!” Scoops said, huffing out her chest, and pulling out a notepad. She scribbled down a message onto a sheet and plastered it onto the door—'It's Hanasaka! Mondo important case! Meet at the Kikuchi residence at your earliest opportunity.'

“Must be convenient,” Audrey said, “having a detective at your beck and call.”

“Any guerrilla reporter worth her salt needs a contact on the side of justice,” Scoops said, turning back around toward the rest of the group to put her hands on her hips. “It's common sense!”

“How exactly did you and Mr. Himekago meet, anyway?” Paige asked, tilting her head.

Scoops waved her hand. “Not important, not important. Maybe later. More importantly, as a representative of the good people of Manzo I have to take all tourists to see the sights, come on, you've got hours to spare.”

“Wait,” Paige said, “you... live here?”

“Why else would she have a local detective by the balls?” Audrey shrugged, as Scoops grabbed Paige by the hand (and thus, grabbed Vespa by Paige's gravity) and began to drag her off.

“Oh, I see, that makes sense, thank you,” Paige said.

Eiji rubbed his arms, muttering, “I hope Mom and Dad aren't bothered by the sudden visit...”

(OP: “[Shouri no Uta](https://youtu.be/ULuyMtgCSPk)”, by Dandelion)

_Ole! Ole!_

_Saa, tachiagare!_

_(Now, stand up!)_

_Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite!_

_(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)_

_**Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber and Red Fox** _

The district of Manzo was cozier than Paige was used to, even for a girl from the Netopian suburbs. The walls were close in, and the buildings short. Business owners waved to Scoops and Eiji, calling out their names to say hello to them.

“—and of course,” Scoops said, “the Ooe tomato farm is a real one. See, their son's a real whiz kid—got his hand on a tomato once and he was never the same. Quiet guy, but a good one if you need him to, plus since he doesn't talk much he hears things that other people don't expect him to.” The farm, as it turned out, was placed in a vacant lot just near the family home. Scoops pulled out a voucher from one of her pockets that she signed and placed in a mailbox by the lot, then pulled a tomato off the vine. “Ooe guarantee. Want one?” She handed it to Paige.

Paige raised her hands. “Um, I... don't really like—”

Saving her from her indignity, Vespa grabbed the tomato and chomped into it, pale red juice squirting to the sides of her lips. “Ahhh, thank god,” Vespa said, chewing her bite of tomato, “I was starving.”

Audrey craned her head over from where Eiji was bowing to a pair of ladies who seemed to own a pottery store. “You experience hunger for human food?”

“You think I was eating all that food for show?” Vespa said, before biting into the tomato again.

_Dare ni mo mane wa sasenai sa_

_(I won’t let anyone intimidate us,)_

_Bokura dake no kono STYLE de_

_(even if we only have this as our Style.)_

_Kono uta ga mune ni todoku nara_

_(If this song reaches our hearts,)_

_Shouri wa mou te no naka ni aru_

_(victory is already in the palm of our hands!)_

“...experiences hunger,” Audrey muttered under her breath, “the hell?”

“Can it,” Scoops said, waving a hand in front of her face. (The relative difference in their heights made it a bit hard.) “Now here,” she said, walking into the center of a small vendors' square and standing by a well with no water in it, “here's the Stuck Well. Bit of folklore for you—the way the oldies tell it, a great ol' carp jumped in the well once, back centuries ago, and ever since it's been stuck. Whoever can pull it out'll get the well running again and they'll get a wish from the carp once it becomes a dragon by swimming up the water.”

Sure enough, there was a rope by the side. Paige took a breath, produced a pair of gloves, put them on, clapped her hands, closed her eyes, and then pumped her fists and furrowed her brows to look as ready as she could. “Alright. Well, I—I mean, far be it from me to not participate in a tradition, right?”

Placing her hands on the old, wet rope, Paige breathed in, out, in, out. “Give it your best, Paige!” Eiji cheered.

“Programmed,” Audrey said, covering her eyes from the sun by using her hand as an awning, “to experience hunger, and she says she's nineteen, that's before cybercooking was really a thing.”

“Quit having an existential crisis over me,” Vespa said, putting her arm around Audrey and lightly knocking her on the head with her knuckles, “and cheer for Paige.”

In, out, in, out... “Hrrrrnnnnn _gggghhhh_!” Paige grunted louder than she'd done in quite some time, exerting all the force her body could really muster onto this poor little rope. She couldn't feel the slightest bit of give, but it was part of local tradition! “Ghhhhrrrrrrrrnnnnnghhhhh!” There were peoples' eyes on her as her face turned red and she began to sweat, a number of people crowding around and asking Scoops and Eiji about their new friend, but Paige's social anxiety was thankfully stymied by the mighty task ahead of her. She dragged her feet into the dirt to stay strong against this damn rope—!

_Akirameru koto wa keshite nai_

_(As long as we’re here,)_

_Kono basho ni bokura iru kagiri_

_(we’ll never give up.)_

_Tada tatakau tame dake ni bokura_

_(We’ll raise our fists to the sky)_

_Ima kobushi sora e tsukiageta_

_(so that we can fight for freedom!)_

“Don't feel bad, little lady,” said a local ice cream vendor who'd given Paige a few scoop of strawberry for her efforts, “most folks give up after a few seconds! You really stuck it out!”

Paige, having foolishly exhausted herself, slumped down onto a bench against a thin wall next to... a yoga studio, probably, by the sound of it, and began to tiredly lick her ice cream. “Seriously,” Scoops said, “you okay, pal?”

“I did my part to participate in local tradition,” Paige panted out, “oh this is delicious.” (Incidentally, strawberry was not Paige's favorite flavor specifically, but of the commonly-available flavors she preferred it. About the only commonly-available ice cream she would not eat was rocky road.)

Eiji sat down next to her, and turned his head down the alleyway, pointing into the distance at an unusually tall and wide building for the area. “Over there is Shirojo Academy,” he said. “Scoops and I went to school there.”

“It's about the only thing in town that looks like it's from this century, huh?” Scoops said with a smirk on her face. Paige couldn't help but agree—with the great clock on its front and Western-style arches, it really did look like the kind of high school she'd expect to see in a major city. “That's 'cause of the last mayor, see. She got all up in arms about how small the schoolhouses in town were, so she went nuts about the education budget. Got a bunch of architects out of her own pocket to build something new with the land of a family that had moved out, and they wound up using the whole space. One of our pride and joys, it is!”

“They also say,” Eiji said with a sparkle in his eye, “that it's haunted!”

Vespa did a double take from Paige's other side. “Is that a good thing?!”

“Oh, nothing malevolent, I assure you. They say that ghosts from the olden era with a lingering attachment to, and love for, Manzo help fledgling couples to confess their love under the enoki tree in the school's back, and those who confess so will remain happy with each other forever!” Eiji's eyes glowed with an uncharacteristic glee, his hands under his chin. “I just think it's a lovely idea!”

“Ah, yes, a love of pure romance,” Scoops said, a grin on her face as she turned away to chuckle to herself, “held by Eiji Kikuchi, Manzo's greatest teen heartbreaker.”

“Awww...” Eiji wilted a little.

“ _Teen_ heartbreaker?” Audrey said, producing from her pocket someone's love letter addressed to Eiji from _yesterday_.

_Taiyou ga bokura wo terashi_

_(Illuminated by the sunlight,)_

_Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni utau_

_(we sing so we can shine brightly on the Earth!)_

“They like to film stuff in this area,” Scoops said, leading her tourists along by the riverbank. A few sets of stairwells crossed down through the grass down to the river's edge, where damp soil glistened with the beginnings of sprouting plants. A few flowers grew between the paths and the untamed grass, which clearly hadn't been trimmed for some time.

Paige's eyes gravitated to the light of the sun sparkling across the clear blue water. “Wow...”

“Yeah,” Audrey said, taking a seat on the top step of one of those stairwells as a number of students passed by, walking to their schoolhouses, “I got struck myself the first time I visited. Nice place, huh.”

Trees on the other side of the riverbank's road waved in a light breeze. It was still too early for them to start falling, but it gave Paige the briefest image of a crisp, orange leaf gently floating along the water. “Damn,” Vespa said, sitting down next to Audrey to admire it herself, “the human world's a wonderful place, ain't it?”

Cinnamon piped up from Eiji's PET. “Honestly, the local Cyberworld isn't half bad, either. The local architects really took it seriously!” She giggled to herself.

“Still,” Vespa said.

_Ole! Ole!_

_Saa, tachiagare!_

_(Now, stand up!)_

_Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite_

_(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)_

“And over here,” Scoops said, swinging over to the sign at the front, “is our batting center. The difficulty can get pretty nasty—even pros fall to our Manzo spirit!”

Vespa cracked her knuckles. “That a challenge?”

Sure enough, soon Vespa had shelled out for a round. Twenty balls, fifteen home runs for the prize. Audrey snorted, as the four of them crowded onto a bench just outside Vespa's lane to watch. “Awful competitive.”

“You did the same thing,” Scoops said, giving Audrey a playful shove.

“You did?” Paige asked, her earnest eyes glowing with a curiosity that made Audrey wither away and turn away, her face red.

“Believe it or not,” Scoops said, “she was even more feral-looking back then. Hadn't cut her split ends in years and she was thin as a rail.” Scoops snorted to herself. “Really, meeting me and Eiji was a wonder for her health. One of these days we might even get to see her hair when it's completely clean and at its natural color.”

“I wash my damn hair!” said Audrey and her mess of cowlicks, on that stained-looking line between brunette and blonde. She scratched at her temples. “Quit giving me shit,” she said, smacking her palm on her leg to punctuate her point. “It just takes a while.”

“Yeah, bet those bangs of yours didn't help you hit any homers, eh?” Scoops said.

_Ole! Ole!_

_Saa, maiagare!_

_(Now, fly high!)_

_Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni!_

_(Shine brightly on this Earth!)_

_Crack!_

The first shot from PitcherMan's lightning-quick arm went right into the target. Fastball, 100 kilometers per hour. All four of them immediately snapped to attention, as Vespa crouched down to take another shot. “Easy,” Vespa said, a fire lit under her voice. “C'mon, champ.”

“That one was easy,” the diminutive baseball-headed Navi tasked with such details said, as he reared back for another shot. And—

_Crack!_

“I ain't got nothin' if I ain't got my shot!” Vespa declared, hitting another homer. Screwball, 80kmph.

Suddenly struck by a burst of enthusiasm, Paige straightened in her seat and shouted, “Go, Vespa!”, cupping her mouth with her hands to carry her voice. Vespa looked back and gave her a reassuring grin and a thumbs up.

_Crack!_

Forkball, 65kmph. Curveball, 50kmph. Forkball, 80kmph. Cutter, 85kmph. Slider, 100 kmph. Fastball, 150kmph. “Oh my god,” Audrey muttered.

“Coulda gone pro if I hadn't joined the army,” Vespa joked. “C'mon, give me a challenge, pal!”

“If you insist, lady!” PitcherMan grimaced a little before launching—Circle changeup, 130kmph. Slider, 145kmph. Sinker, 150kmph. Slider, 130kmph. Was that lightning zig-zag pattern even legal or physically possible, 160kmph. Palmball, 80kmph. Fastball, 170kmph.

As the buzzer for the home run target rang out for the fifteenth time, a few people in the batting cage who'd come to gawk at Vespa's run cheered. Paige was cheering, too. She'd stood up and started pumping her fists enthusiastically. “Go for a perfect, Vespa!” she commanded. “Take him down!”

“I hit like two of those,” Audrey said, pointing a finger. Scoops and Eiji, both wide-eyed, nodded gormlessly.

“A tough guy, huh?” PitcherMan, with nothing left to lose, reached up and turned the baseball cap on his head backwards.

“Personally, I like to think of myself as an aspiring champion in all things,” Vespa said, crouching down and readying her bat once more.

Splitter, 160kmph. Lightning zig-zag, 170kmph. Cutter, 180kmph. Sinker, 190kmph. And—

 _Crack!_ Fastball, 230kmph.

The crowd, Paige included, went completely nuts as PitcherMan's humanly impossible final pitch sank right into the home run target. Twenty outta twenty. “How's _that_ for participating in local tradition!?” Vespa laughed, spinning her bat with a showy motion, then planting it into the ground to lean on it.

Now, PitcherMan may have been a very small torso on a massive baseball head, but that didn't prevent him from taking a deep breath motion, closing his eyes, and strutting right over to shake Vespa's hand. “Not often I get to go all out, tough guy,” he said, extending his hand.

Vespa took it. “Same here.” Thus, a new friendship was forged that day. And really, that was the greatest reward of all.

...though, the coupon to a local ramen stand didn't hurt either.

**Episode 4: The Great Detective's First Account! A Grisly Deletion in Manzo**

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

_**Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Kikuchi Residence** _

“...and over there,” Scoops said, pointing down another street as they walked along, “you'll get the Shirayukis, very blue family, single mother, three kids, son's moved out already and he's a rapper now, daughter's becoming a lawyer, younger daughter loves baking, and then Dr. Morinaga and his daughter—she runs a paranormal vlog, Eiji loves it to death, it's good stuff.”

“It really is,” Eiji said, sparkles in his eyes.

Vespa blinked. “Aren't ghost stories a bit macabre for someone so sparkly?”

“Everyone knows,” Audrey said, raising her hands from their place in the pockets of her labcoats, “that people who are this pure need to get out their freak out _somehow_. All the old bints back where I used to live? True crime, nothing but true crime. Frankly,” and she turned around to actually face Vespa and Eiji here, “this is pretty normal and at least he just thinks they're romantic instead of, 'did you hear about the time that this crazy lady whacked her seven husbands with an axe—'”

Paige and Eiji jumped and clung to each other at the sound of that. Scoops continued on heedlessly. “...and down that way you'll get the Murasakis—pair of sisters with their own place, older one's in construction, nice family, very Jewish, and then the Nishikiyamas—”

“How,” Vespa said, speeding up her pace to catch up with Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter, “do you know everyone in this whole town?”

“You get the hang of things,” Scoops said with a wink. “Anyway, turn left here, and here we are!”

One of the district's few other large properties was a large old estate with its own surroundings, the sort of multi-building home that Paige didn't want to admit out loud she had only really seen in anime. The lush, green frontal garden, with water running through minor systems of bamboo levies, sat in a rim around the home proper. Stone lanterns dotted the rock-set path over the grass. The green slanted roofs over top of the Kikuchi estate were adorned with golden carp statues on their peaks, leading Paige's eyes down to the doorway, where a paper lantern hung above a small step up to the doorway.

The front of the property was largely open, and if Paige desired, she could easily have gone off on a walkway to the side and probably circumnavigated the actual home on them, judging by the look of things. Still, there were a number of windows, so someone would no doubt eventually see her and think that was rather odd of her.

“Always breathtaking, ain't it?” Scoops said, taking a deep, no doubt satisfying breath in. “Used to be the estate of the town's magistrate way back when, but the Kikuchis got it at some point.”

As Eiji bowed to the front of his own home, Cinnamon chimed in from his PET. “I don't mean to impose, Vespa,” she said, “but would you mind if I borrowed your CopyBot for a moment? I promise I won't do anything nasty to it.”

Vespa, after having bluescreened for a moment staring at the house, shook her head and said, “No, no, you, uh... Go ahead, this scene ain't my bag. I'll, uh—”

“She gets a little uncomfortable when she feels like she's incapable of being properly formal for a social situation,” Paige said, and Scoops, Eiji, and Audrey all nodded understandingly.

Vespa gritted her teeth and took a sharp breath in, saying, “Well I wasn't gonna say that out loud but okay,” before vanishing out of the CopyBot for Cinnamon to take her place (after Vespa's clothes were properly tucked away.)

Thus, with a twirling motion and a starry wink toward an invisible camera, the family medic arrived on the scene properly. “The idol of nonviolence has arrived!” Cinnamon said, her tail forming a heart shape for effect as she did.

“I'll go check out the place on my end, then,” Vespa said. “Let me know any embarrassing family secrets you learn!”

“Take pictures for me?” Paige asked. With a 'you got it!', Vespa plonked onto the network and skillfully avoided a social situation she found imposing.

Now, Paige certainly wasn't going to be the one to open the door, but thankfully Cinnamon strutted up onto the doorway. “Imagine the looks on their faces,” she said. “Oh—Paige, dear, do remember to take your shoes off in the doorway.” Cinnamon had an idiosyncratic knock—five knocks in a row, with a sort of slapping motion to them.

The humans present crowded behind Cinnamon as the doors opened, and... “Sorry,” said the lady who answered the door as she opened it, “Mrs. Kikuchi isn't accepting any...”

Blink. Pause. The girl in the doorway was wearing a white and black traditional archer's uniform, but it was deeply unsuited to the leather cowboy hat and gloves she wore. Blue eyes, very bright, and her hair, a warmer brunette than Paige's by quite some degree, was tied up into a pair of pigtails. She had a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose that that obnoxious back part of Paige's brain that made observations she wished it wouldn't observed that she found rather _cute_ , honestly. And she was... well, she wasn't _tall_ tall, but she was taller than Paige and her friends, at least.

Speaking of her eyes, they darted very quickly. First they landed on Audrey, and then Eiji, and then Paige, and then Scoops, and then back to Eiji again, and then back to Scoops. The dumbfounded expression on her face only intensified. The awkward silence thickened.

Paige cleared her throat and turned her head to Eiji, putting on her best smile. “Um, someone you know?”

The awkward silence thickened further.

“Um,” Eiji said, leaning in to whisper, “you... just met a bit ago.”

“Oh,” Paige said, “when? Was it at the pottery st—”

“Stop, no, no, okay, no, I'm gonna close the door and try this again, this didn't happen, shut up, okay,” the girl said, and pointedly shut the door.

A pause for everyone to catch their breath. Audrey coughed.

The door opened, and the girl bowed in a manner befitting one who'd open an entry door at a large estate like this. “Welcome home, young master Eiji, miss Cinnamon. If you'd like to see your parents, they're currently enjoying a spot of television.” She got through that whole statement with only a few stammers for surprise! Good for her. “My most earnest apologies—I hadn't expected you to visit, or with such a large group.”

“Have you been practicing your cardio?” Scoops asked.

Pause.

“Cause I mean, wherever the broadcast tower was it probably wasn't that near here and you probably had to get in from a physical access point, right?” Scoops continued. “So you would've had to hoof it.”

“ _Please, come in,_ ” she responded, very pointedly walking out of the doorway to allow everyone to walk in. Cinnamon was laughing, of course.

As she walked over the boundary into Eiji's home, Paige proceeded to bend down, untie her shoes, take one off and place it in the shoe box, and then as she was lifting the other shoe into it, the metaphorical lightbulb finally lit up over her head and she dropped the other shoe out of surprise. “ _Oh!_ ” Paige said, turning her head to look at—“Oh, you're—you're their other friend, right? The, um...”

Asahi Makimura, as it turned out, had been in the process of leaving the entryway and scurrying off when she'd been directly addressed, and she stopped dead in her tracks as she did, her shoulders hitching up. She made some cracking noises as she turned her head, and... yes, those were the wide eyes and gritted teeth of someone who felt she'd been caught red-handed.

“Well—” Asahi sputtered. “Well! You know, I—really I should be asking who _you_ are, I mean—i-in my duties as part-time caretaker of the estate it's, well it's—p-perfectly natural, you know.”

This hallway wasn't particularly wide, and the sliding doors along the inner wall did not seem particularly thick. As such, Asahi was attempting to keep her voice down as best she could. Paige tried to match. “Oh. Yes, I'm—I'm very sorry, hi. Hello. My name is Paige Markham, I—I met them at college. We're—I think we're friends now.”

“You _think_?” Scoops asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I—look, I—” Paige raised her hands defensively. “I don't—you know, I don't really have—”

“I'm just joshing you!” Scoops said, giving Paige a jovial faux-punch in the ribs. Scoops was not very respectful to the whole volume issue. “She and her Navi just kicked your tuchises, is who they are.”

“Oh,” Asahi said, “oh, so you're.” Pause. Raise finger. “You and... you're with...”

“Yes,” Paige said, nodding.

“Okay,” Asahi said, nodding back. “Hello. Hi. I'm Asahi Makimura. I, um, I live... nearby. The Kikuchi family, um. Sometimes I. Take care of the place during the day.”

“Hi,” Paige said.

“Hi,” Asahi said.

“Can we talk about the cowboy hat?” Scoops asked. In response, Asahi pulled off her cowboy hat and started attempting to smother Scoops with it. “Hey!” she said, muffled by the fabric, “this is assault! I'll call the cops on you!”

“You'll call the cops on her for _that_?” Audrey said, having already opened a nearby door to a waiting room—she must've been here before, Paige observed—and settled down.

At that comment, Asahi stopped doing what she was doing and grabbed Eiji by the shoulders, her eyes wide with terror. “ _Please_ tell me that man is alright I swear I didn't mean to hurt anybody I—”

Eiji raised a hand, and Asahi shushed. “He's alright. We got him on an ambulance, and he should be off to the hospital by now.”

Asahi visibly deflated, an animated sigh rolling out of her lungs and flattening her like an accordion. “Oh thank _goooood_ ,” she said.

Cut. A few moments later, the six present had sat down in the waiting room around a currently un-heated kotatsu. Paige and Audrey sat across from Asahi, Scoops to their left, and Eiji and Cinnamon to their right. “So,” Audrey said, idly shuffling a deck of cards, “your boss asked you to do something when nobody was looking, and you and your Navi just went off and did it in the middle of the day.”

Asahi pulled her hat over her head. “I'm _sorryyyyy_ ,” she wailed.

“Well,” Eiji said, reaching over to pat her on the shoulder, “nobody was hurt, thankfully.”

“So,” Audrey said. “That Navi of yours went, 'what ho! If you _ganbatte_ , _ojou-sama_ , surely our lords shall look favorably upon your commitment to the way of a _seigi no mikata_!' and you actually listened to him.”

Asahi continued shrinking. “ _I'm sorryyyyyyy_ ,” she sobbed.

“I tell you,” Scoops said, “you really need to learn how to exercise some critical thinking, Makimura. You and these sob stories, I swear—”

“Um, excuse me,” Paige asked. “Your bosses—are they really working with Vespa's old operator?”

The room went quiet for a moment before Asahi finally looked up from underneath her cowboy hat. “Not by choice. Um—well, see, it's—”

“Bit of an internal schism?” Cinnamon asked.

“Right. Right, right,” Asahi nodded. “Uh, I don't—you know—the way K tells it, see, it's like—”

“Even if you personally disagree with the ways of certain undesirable elements of society,” Audrey offered, “it's sometimes necessary to work with them to get things done.”

Pause.

“Yeah, that,” Asahi said.

Paige took a breath out. “Alright, thank you. I was worried I was getting involved with a criminal organization full of very nasty people.”

“Oh, no, no, yeah, no,” Asahi said, rapidly shaking her head, “no, no, most of—uh, well—I just sympathize. Just—y'know. Sympathize.”

“With?” Paige asked, tilting her head.

Pause.

“The—the _point_ is,” Asahi said, dodging the question with all the grace of a waterlogged Samoyed, “we're not—I mean, we're not upending our lives here—I didn't—”

“You're doing someone a favor,” Audrey said, “not upending your life to become an agent of some big organization like the WWW or something.”

“Yeah! Yeah,” Asahi said, nodding rapidly. “Yeah, yeah, that's it. So.”

“So no hard feelings,” Paige said.

“Yeah, uh, no—yeah,” Asahi said. “Yeah. Yeah. Please don't get me arrested. I can't go to jail. My parents would be so disappointed if I went to jail.”

One final pause.

Eiji giggled. “That is rather like you, Asahi. Please just try not to get other people involved next time.”

“Right! Yeah. Sorry. My bad. Should I send flowers? And chocolates, maybe? Should I fold him some paper cranes?” Asahi said.

Cinnamon and Eiji put their hands on Asahi's shoulders. “Breathe,” Cinnamon said. “Find your center, Asahi.”

Asahi did so, taking deep breaths, in, out, in, out. Hoo. “Okay,” Asahi said. She awkwardly pulled out her PET, and poked the screen. “Peggie?”

“ _I must repent for my foolish actions!_ ” cried the voice of Pegasolta Eclair. Asahi grimaced, so whatever he was doing over there must've been quite something. “ _I WILL BECOME PURE! A BLADE OF PURE JUSTICE!_ ” Asahi pocketed her PET again.

“Where'd you get this guy, even?” Scoops asked. “What happened to the last one?”

Asahi frowned and slumped a little. “Skiver went off to become a pro C-Slider after you left for college,” she said.

“And seriously,” Scoops said, “what's with the cowboy hat? And that fake accent you were doing?”

“ _I can express my aesthetic however I like!_ ” Asahi said, standing up from the table, her nostrils flaring. “D-d-d-d-you can't tell me not to! You—I mean, you've got that silly nickname and the hat!”

“This hat,” Scoops said, crossing her arms and glaring up at the much taller woman, “is the mark of any good reporter. That thing's just goofy.”

“Well—” Asahi puffed her cheeks out and sat back down. “Well, I like it.”

Paige laughed a little. “It's a very interesting look. Um, should you be getting back to work?” Asahi froze.

“If you'd like,” Cinnamon said, “we could leave the room to let you get back into character.”

The five of them filed out of the room and shut the doors so that Asahi could gracefully slide them open again and bow to them. “It was lovely speaking to you all, but I do have duties to attend to. Thank you, Ms. Markham, for befriending the young master.” And she was off, with a watering can in hand to go do... gardening things, presumably.

“She likes to get into character,” Eiji said to Paige, once Asahi had left. Paige nodded.

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

_**Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Kikuchi Estate (Inner Chambers)** _

“My younger sister,” Eiji explained as they navigated through the halls, “doesn't get home from school until a little later—when she's here, she always wants to roughhouse with Asahi, so her job gets harder.”

“Roughhouse?” Paige blinked.

“She's very rambunctious,” Eiji giggled, reaching a finger up to twirl with one of his ringlets. “Hm—ah, I should've asked if Michi was awake. Are you allergic to dogs, Paige?” Paige shook her head. “It'll be alright, then. We've had Michi for quite some time—she's large, but please don't be intimidated. She's as gentle as anything.”

Through a few open doors, Paige saw a linen closet, a laundry room, a... well, that room just looked like it had nothing but a stand for ornate origami cranes. “You see,” Eiji said, “Mother has always been somewhat sickly. With Cinnamon and me gone, Father wanted to be sure that someone would be here during the day.”

“She still has our number, though,” Cinnamon said, leaning in conspiratorially for this completely normal conversation, “and I'm on call twenty-four hours a day.”

“Really? Twenty-four hours?” Paige asked.

With her face in a downright angelic ^ω^, Cinnamon said, “Oh, of course. After all, I don't sleep. I just sit there, waiting.”

“Waiting for... what?” Paige asked. Cinnamon laughed.

“Ah, here we are,” Eiji said. Audrey leaned in to whisper to Paige, 'brace yourself'. Eiji slid open the door, and—

“ _Sweetieeee!_ ”

It happened before Paige even had a chance to blink. Eiji had been simultaneously tackled by two different people, and was now in the midst of one of the most smothering hugs Paige had ever even imagined. “You didn't tell us you were coming!” That was probably Eiji's father, speaking.

“Oh, Eiji, it's so good to see you! How's college?!” And that, probably Eiji's mother. “Is it treating you okay being a second-year?! You haven't gotten hurt at all, have you?”

“Ahaha,” Eiji said, remarkably unfazed, “no, Mom, I haven't. Sorry for the intrusion—we weren't expecting to need to come by!”

Sliding into Paige's field of view like an old cartoon, Cinnamon asked, “Room for one more?”

“Oh, and you even brought Cinnamon!” A heavy arm reached out from the overwhelming mass of family affection, pulling Cinnamon in. “How's work treating you?!”

“Same as it was the last time you asked that,” Cinnamon said.

Suddenly, the Kikuchi family pow-wow ceased, and the formation in the doorway shifted to be comprehensible to an outsider like Paige. Eiji took quite a bit after his mother—she had the same eyes and very similar hair, though obviously the pink and orange yukata she wore couldn't entirely hide certain womanly traits that Eiji did not possess. She was taller, though, and looked to be overall more slender, especially in the hands.

Eiji's father, though, was a bit of a shock having known his son—the man, with his stoic blocky glasses, set chin, thick mustache, and heavy, stout build, looked about as far from Eiji as you could get in terms of overall vibe. His yukata was black, and he stood, his glasses blocking his eyes, arms crossed such that his hands were hidden within the sleeves of his yukata. Both of them bowed simultaneously. “Welcome to our home,” Mr. Kikuchi said. “I don't believe we've had the pleasure.”

Pause. “They're talking to you,” Audrey said.

“Wha—oh!” Paige realized she existed again and started. “I'm—I'm very sorry for the intrusion!” Paige bowed. “I'm—Paige Markham, sir, ma'am, I—I met your son at college, he's—he's a very nice boy.”

“Yes,” Mr. Kikuchi said, his face hardly moving but to betray just the slightest hint of pride, “he is, isn't he.”

The inner chamber here contained a rather odd fixture for the estate—a Western-style sofa, set up to look at the family's television. Its dark cedar walls lit up from the light fixture in the ceiling, and the back of the room contained a fold-out futon, presumably for in case someone needed to lay down without being transported elsewhere. There was also a cabinet full of first-aid supplies, and what looked like a small refrigerator in the corner—but it took up a small part of the room, all of that, and most of it was dedicated to the sofa, and chairs, and a small table, and a television. “I visited Netopia once,” Mrs. Kikuchi said, “and it's easier on my back, the sofa is. Makiri! How are you, sweetie?” Mrs. Kikuchi launched into a hug towards Scoops.

“All good, Mrs. Kikuchi, all good,” Scoops said, though she did look a bit flummoxed by the use of her real name. “Got a real scoop on the table thanks to Paige here!”

Meanwhile, Mr. Kikuchi had broken from the formation to show a bit more facial motion as he greeted Audrey. “Very good to see you, Ms. Longhener,” he said, as they bowed to each other, “and thank you again for humoring Saaya when you visited last month, and for fixing her PET, of course—I don't know the first thing about them.”

“Of course, sir,” Audrey said. “She's a good kid. I don't mind at all.”

“She is, isn't she?!” Mrs. Kikuchi slid into the conversation to grab Audrey's hands, stars in her eyes. “So full of life! She really likes you, you know, especially that mop of hair of yours—she said that she might want to have hair like yours at some point!”

“She really doesn't,” Audrey said, snorting and grinning. “She's better off keeping it short like she's got now.”

“What, now Audrey's her role model?” Scoops said. “I remember that kid used to think _I_ was the coolest lady on the block!”

Mr. Kikuchi turned his head to say, “She has room in her heart for multiple.”

And then—

Suddenly, Paige was being gently shoved by the shoulders over to the sofa, where Mr. and Mrs. Kikuchi sat down to their side of her. “So,” Mrs. Kikuchi said, leaning in, “Paige—can I call you Paige? How'd you meet our Eiji, hm?”

Eiji slumped over by the door, rubbing his forehead and sighing. “Oh, dear...”

“Oh, um...” Paige shrunk into her seat. It was quite plush. “Well, Cinnamon was helping another student in my class, so my Navi and I helped him get back into his room, is all. It's really not—”

“That's very kind of you!” Mrs. Kikuchi said. “You know, Eiji really does just seem to attract kind people like yourself. Though, when I first met Audrey I didn't think she'd be as good with children as she is—she is a little scary when she's mad, isn't she, all fangs and spittle?”

“Oh, no,” Paige said, as Audrey grumbled a little in the background, “no, no... um, they've all been taking very good care of me—”

“I'm sure,” Mr. Kikuchi said. “What do you do, Ms. Markham?”

“Ah, I'm in Dr. Kamizono's course with Audrey, so—”

“Her uncle,” Audrey said, sitting down in a nearby chair, “was this big-time Cyberspace developer and Navi programmer out in Netopia, Glenn Markham.”

“Oh, I remember you mentioning him once!” Mrs. Kikuchi said, gasping with her hand over her mouth. “So you're following in your uncle's footsteps, hm? Oh, that's lovely!”

“Taking up the family tradition,” Mr. Kikuchi said with a stern nod. “Very respectable. Any notable talents?”

“Apparently she can measure earthquakes down to the decimal just by feeling them,” Scoops said. She sat down, too. Paige wilted deeper into the sofa.

“Fascinating,” Mr. Kikuchi said. Paige felt for her PET, and then remembered Vespa wasn't there.

“You seem like a lovely young lady,” Mrs. Kikuchi said. “Eiji's a lovely young man, isn't he?” Paige was gravitated to look Mrs. Kikuchi in the eyes. “Really just lovely. It's just tragic he hasn't found the right person yet, isn't it?”

“I—” Paige stammered.

“But perhaps love can strike from any moment,” Mrs. Kikuchi said, clasping her hands against her chest, stars in her eyes. “Perhaps my darling son is just waiting for the moment that a dashing hero sweeps him off his feet—!”

“Um!” Paige called out. “I'm. I'm a lesbian.”

There was a moment's pause.

“Ah,” Mr. Kikuchi said. “I see. Carry on, then.” He patted Paige on the back. Paige staggered off of the sofa, finally released from the well of gravity upon it, and slumped to her knees on the floor, panting. Her face was red, and her head felt deathly foggy.

“Yeah, they do that to everyone he brings home,” Scoops said, snickering to herself. “Everyone gets it once.”

“She seems lovely,” Mrs. Kikuchi said to Eiji, who, too, was wilting into embarrassment. “What brings you around town?”

“We need Detective Himekago,” Scoops said, “and it seemed like the best place to direct him. The old man's house is a bit small.”

“Whatever do you need Yuu for?” Mrs. Kikuchi asked, her hands beginning to ball in excitement. “Is there some some sort of case? Can I help?”

“Not at the moment,” said Cinnamon, who slid in to thoroughly defuse Mrs. Kikuchi's excitement by giving her a shoulder massage _just right_. “Ooh, these are awfully stiff.”

“Ohhhh yeah, oh yeah, that's the spot,” Mrs. Kikuchi said, her posture melting into jelly. “Those are the paws.”

“Who doesn't need the loving care of everyone's favorite angel of healing?” Cinnamon winked, and there was a little star on her face for a moment as she did. “Someone's been skipping her daily exercises, hasn't she.” Mrs. Kikuchi made a vaguely displeased noise. “Now, you know your body can get stiff when you don't move around enough. Ah, I swear, a month or two without me and you're right back to complacency—if I see you've been sitting _seiza_ we'll have to have words.”

That got Mr. Kikuchi to instantly freeze. Mrs. Kikuchi averted her eyes, suddenly alert. Cinnamon turned her head. “Teruaki,” Cinnamon said to Mr. Kikuchi, “anything to declare?”

“No,” Mr. Kikuchi said, his posture hardening into stone. “Nothing.”

“I'll have to have a look at her legs later, then,” Cinnamon said.

Eiji sat down next to Paige, who was recuperating from her earlier evaluation in the corner, and said, “I really am sorry. I, um... I wasn't entirely sure how to warn you about that.”

“Surprisingly,” Paige said, trying very hard to steady her breathing, “um, lively people. I wasn't—I wasn't expecting that.” Then, a thought occurred. “I'm _really_ glad Vespa isn't here.”

“God, can you imagine?” That was Audrey, who'd stealthily folded out the futon and was fiddling with that same deck of cards. “Someone'd probably light on fire from the culture clash.” (Incidentally, Scoops was still over in a chair with Eiji's parents and Cinnamon, contributing to Cinnamon's comedy routine as the overworked medic.)

“I recall you having a pretty hard time yourself,” Eiji giggled. Audrey grumped. “All things considered, it went very well for you, Paige. Audrey spent an hour in the corner unresponsive.”

“Shut the hell up,” Audrey said, and Paige could swear that her hair got pointier in that moment. “What's with you people.” Shuffle. “Laughing about my misfortune, huh.”

“Um, what's with the cards?” Paige asked.

Audrey looked down, realized she was shuffling her deck of cards, then shrugged. “Easier for me to be cordial if I've got something occupying the lizard space of my brain. Plus it'll make a good prop for when I inevitably wind up making my once-in-a-lifetime villain speech. I'll lean back in a red velvet seat, cross my legs, and start shuffling my cards with a smug grin on my face, before explaining my evil plot in great detail to the heroes with a maniacal cackle or two.”

“Why is it a _villain_ speech?” Paige asked.

“Heroes have to be role models,” Audrey said. “Texas hold 'em?”

Paige blinked, and then smiled. “Sure!”

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Kikuchi Residence (Physical Therapy Room)_ **

As Eiji explained it, this room had used to be for kendo practice, but being that Eiji was in no way a _kendoka_ , it had been repurposed by Cinnamon to be used for certain physical exercises. It was roomy, clear, and had a very solid floor, making it ideal for any number of activities, up to and including—

“ _Hajime!_ ”

Paige wasn't much for dancepad games, but the rules were pretty easy to pick up. Mrs. Kikuchi was clearly an old hand by this point, as after a bit of stretching her legs were already right on point. And—

“ _Nanairo emaki no you, nigiwau machi azayaka ni! Kisetsu wa oukaranman, koko wa Edo hana kouji!_ ” Her singing voice wasn't that great, but Mrs. Kikuchi was evidently quite into this. Paige inwardly resolved that this was going to need to be training—if both Mrs. Kikuchi _and_ Compa were so into these, then she needed to get better! It was local tradition!

Taking a deep breath, Paige stopped thinking so much about her movements and tried to just let her feet and the arrows on the screen guide her. She'd played video games before, of course, but controlling one with your feet was something entirely different that took some getting used to. That said, the rules were very simple, so it was mostly a matter of getting her body into the rhythm.

...Yeah, Vespa would've had an easier time with this, Paige thought. She'd probably be getting really into it. Her hair would be waving back and forth, and she might even be singing along with Mrs. Kikuchi if she knew the words. She'd probably—well, Paige had seen Vespa dance before. She was a good dancer. She knew her way, as it were, around a dance floor. Paige never had. Even when Mimel's mother had tried to teach her, Paige had always felt like she had two left feet.

...well, there were a lot of things about herself Paige wasn't entirely satisfied with. Her personality, for one thing. It was easy to just sort of sit back and let other people dominate the conversation at the best of times, and it was lucky that at least the people she'd run into on her first day were largely kind, even if they... well, even if Scoops was very energetic, and gregarious, and... loud. Scoops was loud.

That led Paige to a realization—usually, she got at least a little nervous when she was in a social situation and Vespa wasn't around (or Mimel, but Mimel was across an entire ocean, and had her own life, too, such as it were being an apartment-dwelling eccentric artist by day, MMA star by night.) And, sure, Eiji's parents made a very forceful impression, but she didn't feel all that nervous. It was the first time in quite a while Paige had been in a situation like this at all—even if she did have her own alone moments, usually she was with Vespa, the girl who'd suddenly stumbled into her life.

Paige still remembered the first night she'd met Vespa. On the outside, Vespa was scuffed, but on the inside, she'd been wrecked. It was a wonder she could still move, in the state her internals were in. Even now, Vespa couldn't charge her Busters or utilize about twenty percent of her own customization space, and she'd lost a great deal of durability from what Paige speculated her original specs might've been. Paige was no expert, but Vespa had said that the repairs Paige had made to her were enough, and that there was no need to actually go see an expert. “Besides,” Vespa had said, “why would I need to go see some fusty old doctor if I've got a lovely young lady's handiwork right here?”

Vespa was the first person in quite some time who'd called her 'lovely' and meant it. If Paige had put herself together now, it was thanks to Vespa's encouragement more than anything. “You've got such a pretty smile,” Vespa had said. “I don't wanna see it all choked up.” It had been cheesy, sure, but those sorts of cheesy, earnest words were, as it turned out, just how to reach Paige Markham's heart.

She'd never had the strength to say what she wanted to say to Vespa. Many times, she'd wanted to shout, “Please, don't leave me! Don't leave. Stay.” For so long, she'd been afraid that Vespa would just vanish from her life one day. That she'd leave, and never come back, gone as suddenly as she came. Who knew why. There were different reasons why, every time Paige dreamed of it. Perhaps she'd heard about who Paige was before they met. Perhaps she'd found someone else she wanted to be with. And perhaps—perhaps she'd simply grown bored. Perhaps dull, simple Paige wasn't good enough to maintain her attention.

Paige had never given voice to these feelings. Not to Vespa, to Mimel, to _anyone_. If she did, she'd have to ask questions. She'd have to properly confront the fact that she was still just a dependent. So... why was she thinking about them now?

...Right. She knew why she was thinking about them now. Well, partially it was the social anxiety being relevant, sure, but—well, there was a different reason. A very grumpy, Sharonian reason. One with a lot of hair. One who—

Paige collapsed onto her knees and panted, the last arrows on whichever number song this was in the set scrolling off the top of the screen and displaying their mutual scores. She grasped the edges of the dancepad and wheezed. “Ohhh gosh.”

Cinnamon, who'd been controlling the set for physical therapy reasons, blinked. “Wow.”

“Wow what?” Paige asked. Mrs. Kikuchi, for her part, was also just about to faint.

“I mean, I just kept going as a joke, I'm amazed you stayed on that long,” Cinnamon said. She held up her paw and made an O-K hand gesture, then whistled. “Impressive.”

“So you can keep up with me, huh?” Mrs. Kikuchi's lungs clearly were a little worse for wear, but the grin on her face made it seem like she at least enjoyed the exhaustion. Her husband and Eiji helped her off the dancepad. “Durable... aren't you...”

“No, ma'am, I'm really... how long was that?” Paige muttered.

“Twelve minutes, forty-seven seconds of pure groovin' action, ladies and germs!” Scoops declared, having set up shop at the dedicated booth that this room had for her (no doubt she was a regular, huh.)

Thankfully, Audrey was there to support Paige as she stood up. “You good there?” Audrey said, holding her hand on Paige's lungs. “Looking a little pale. Need any water?”

“Please,” Paige begged.

Water was obtained, and both Paige and Mrs. Kikuchi recuperated from their odyssey of dancing and aimless introspection—well, Mrs. Kikuchi probably just sang and danced, Paige thought. “Seriously,” Cinnamon said, leaning in to where they sat, “you can tell me when to stop.”

“I was having fun!” Mrs. Kikuchi said. “I was playing with the young folk!”

“Mom, you're only forty-one,” Eiji giggled. “You're not very old yet.”

“My withering bodyyyy,” Mrs. Kikuchi wailed, falling to the floor and grasping her arms up. “My withering bodyyyy!”

“What's the old line,” Audrey said. “Time flies when you're having fun?” Paige nodded. “Right.” Audrey got back to playing with her cards.

—There was something or another about Audrey that reminded Paige of herself. She wasn't sure what, exactly; it certainly wasn't their personalities, considering that Paige was about as spiky as a marshmallow and Audrey was as soft as a sea urchin, but having to be convinced to take care of basic bodily hygiene wasn't unfamiliar to Paige. She was a curious woman, this Audrey Longhener who was in Paige's class. Paige would have to ask Mimel to make sure she remembered how to talk to people, because at this point she wasn't entirely sure anymore.

The sliding door at the entrance of the room opened, and Asahi poked her head in. “Young master, Detective Himekago is at the entrance waiting to see you and your party.”

“He's a good man, that one,” Mr. Kikuchi commented. “Don't keep him waiting.”

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Kikuchi Residence (Entryway)_ **

It was a simple black car that the esteemed detective drove, as he was not one to be pressed with keeping on the cutting edge. People had sometimes jokingly referred to Detective Yuu Himekago as a luddite, one opposed to new ways of operating in modern society, but that was not the case—he preferred to think of himself as a modest man. A detective's greatest tools were his eyes, after all, and his ears, not a great big car to declare himself.

When the door opened, he was where he'd remained—standing by a stone lantern with a cup of tea in his hand, waiting patiently so as not to intrude. Six years after his big break, that finely-combed ponytail, those boyish features, and those utilitarian tortoiseshell glasses were still a dead giveaway.

People had sometimes jokingly referred to Detective Yuu Himekago as an eccentric, one who did not abide by the regular norms of the time, but that was not the case—he preferred to think of himself as simply a fashionable man. Certainly, one did not often see people parading around in black half-capes with yellow trim, or with a jewel-topped cane, or white feathered gloves, or in a fine brown suit with that same green brooch atop its lapel. However, if he had learned anything, it was that what looked best was usually the truest expression of one's earnest aesthetic, and he had his aesthetic and he worked it.

Upon the opening of the door, the good Detective saw four people, three of whom he was acquainted with. Two of them he knew well—one was the young scion of the Kikuchi family, and one his ever-trusty companion, Hanasaka. “Afternoon, Scoops,” he said, placing down his teacup, and turning his head to the group in the doorway to raise his eyebrow. “You know, there's something important I should be working on right now.”

Then, there was their newer friend, a Ms... Longhener, if he remembered correctly, a shaggy, feral-looking girl in a labcoat who'd come into the country rail-thin and had managed to attract Hanasaka's attention somehow or another. Right, Audrey Longhener. They'd met in passing once or twice on the street, and he knew of her existence, but they'd never spoken at length, so all Yuu had were his eyes to go on, there.

It seemed they'd added another member to their repertoire, though—in the back there was a young lady who carried herself in a demure manner, seeming awfully small as she did—a skill she'd no doubt practiced quite a bit, as she was not actually a small woman herself. She wasn't about to give Eiji a run for his money in terms of femininity, but she was definitely much more classically feminine than the company he usually kept. Judging by the clothes she wore, and the apparel, such as her purse, it was easy to assume she was not a local even without looking at her face. Brunette, wore her hair in pigtails... She was averting her eyes. Probably not someone he should be too loud with at first.

“Eh, yeah, yeah,” Scoops said, charging up and attempting to grab Yuu by the hand. “Get in here, Himekago, we've got things to do and you're the man for 'em!”

Yuu dodged his hand out of her arc, and slid casually past her to walk toward the door, giving his cane a little twirl as he did. “I've come here, you know,” he said, “so that implies I'm here to listen to you. Eiji,” he said, bowing his head. “Ms. Longhener, I recall?” She nodded, and he bowed his head. “And I haven't made your acquaintance, ma'am—if I had to guess, you're Scoops's informant on this case?”

“P-Paige Markham. Sir,” she said with a bow. “Um. I-I—well, I'm a person the case happened to? So I think so.”

Yuu laughed aloud. “Oh, thank god, I was worried she was going to be my _client_.”

“What's that supposed to mean?!” Scoops piped up.

“You're a lovely young lady, Scoops,” Yuu said, turning his head over his shoulder, “but you speak very, very fast and it's hard to catch your train of thought sometimes.”

They sat down in the front waiting room, naturally, and Yuu produced his notepad. Paige and Audrey sat next to each other, and Eiji and Scoops to either side. “Now,” Yuu said, “what sort of case are we dealing with here? I will warn you it will likely take longer for me to investigate international cases.”

“Um,” Paige said. “Well, see—”

“Quiet,” Audrey said, shushing Scoops as she revved up.

“I came to Electopia to go to college,” Paige said. “At Ayanokoji.” Yuu nodded. “But, the day before I left—um, I went to visit my uncle Glenn, at his lab—”

“Markham?” Yuu asked. “Glenn Markham?” Paige nodded. “Ah, I see. So the incident occurred at Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs?” Paige nodded again. “I mean no disrespect, but I was under the impression that Dr. Markham was deceased.”

“He... is,” Paige said. “His grave—”

“Ah,” Yuu said. He raised his hands. “Understood. My apologies, ma'am.”

“I, my friend Mimel, and my Navi, Vespa—she's, um, out right now—we all came to visit. Dr. Gaudile—”

“Harold?” Yuu asked. Paige nodded. “I'm sorry about the questions, it's just I wasn't expecting something so relatively high-profile today.”

“No, no, it's alright. Yes, um, Harold Gaudile. He was... a very good friend of my uncle's. He, um, he runs the lab. Nowadays. So, Dr. Gaudile greeted us, but as we were going in, um, there was a security malfunction. Someone had broken into the lab's cyberspace, and people couldn't get out while it was happening. We weren't sure how it happened. We went to go investigate, and Vespa and I reached pretty deep in to follow the perpetrator—”

“You went in to follow a most likely armed perpetrator?” Yuu asked. Paige blushed and nodded. “Why?”

“Because people were in danger, and... well, I wanted to help,” Paige said.

“Ah,” Yuu said, nodding. “I see.” He made a mental note to himself—despite her timid demeanor, Paige Markham was apparently the sort who operated by what some would uncharitably call a hero complex. He wouldn't, though. “That was very brave of the both of you.” He smiled.

“We wound up reaching a secret area of the lab's network that most of the employees didn't know about,” Paige said. “A deep, hidden chamber. Vespa and I wound up battling one of the people who'd broken in, a Navi named Panter Flauclaws. He and his operator were working for someone they called 'K'.”

“Who is—!” Scoops started up.

“Shush,” Audrey said, placing a finger over Scoops's mouth.

“They got away when their boss, K, opened a portal for them out of the network,” Paige said. Yuu raised his eyebrow. “Yes, a—a portal. And we went in, and the item that was being contained had been stolen, and they'd left a calling card.” Scoops reared up, Audrey knocked her down. “Dr. Gaudile said that it was called an 'Erosion Key', but he didn't tell me what it was for. And, well, I wasn't sure if I should do anything about it—Dr. Gaudile said to leave it to the Officials, but it didn't quite sit right. Scoops suggested coming to see you.”

“And this was when?” Yuu asked.

“Um, two and a half weeks ago. The twelfth,” Paige said. “So, um, something more happened after that, but I showed Scoops the calling card they left and she said—”

“ _Tech Kraken is back!_ ” Scoops said, leaning onto the table like a hungry beast. Her eyes were wide with a frenetic giddiness. “It's a Tech Kraken calling card! He must've escaped somehow!”

When he was younger, people had sometimes jokingly referred to Yuu Himekago as a rather rude boy. This was not the case, or at least he did not believe it to be so, and neither had his mother—when something completely baffled the young detective, he had a habit of going quiet to ponder it, rather than responding immediately with his first thoughts. When one's peers are teenagers, who oftentimes say things that make absolutely no sense, this means that one goes inward a lot.

So, Yuu did not say the first thing that came to mind. He did not, as a certain instinct told him, let out a noise of disbelief in Scoops's face. Paige handed him her PET—well-worn, so no doubt she really was Glenn Markham's niece, and it lent credence to the idea that she and her Navi really did share that sort of skill and bond. It had a picture of a calling card on it.

And, sure enough—well. It certainly _looked_ like one of Kraken's calling cards. It bore a resemblance, you could say. “Hm,” Yuu said, studying it. “Well, Ms. Markham, I am quite interested to hear more—but there appears to be a misunderstanding here. This isn't one of Kraken's.”

“It's not?!” Scoops said, her knees banging into the underside of the table. “But who else can break in somewhere like that?!”

“Well, that remains to be seen,” Yuu said, “but this is a fake. And, even if it was a forgery, I can tell you that Tech Kraken is not the culprit of this crime. He has an utterly air-tight alibi.” Scoops reared up. “ _Air-tight_ , Scoops. When I use that word, I am not exaggerating. There was not a singular second that he could have suddenly developed super-speed and gotten onto that network from across the ocean while not being observed. This is a forgery, most likely meant to frame Kraken.”

The room went silent for a moment as everyone digested this information. Poor Paige, clearly out of her depth, looked awfully befuddled. “Still,” Yuu said, “the theft of such a secretive item from a highly-guarded facility doesn't sit well. I am sorry it took so long to get here, Ms. Markham, but I'd be happy to put this on Scoops's tab.”

“Oh, um—” Paige stammered for a moment. “T-thank you, Detective.” She breathed a sigh of relief.

“That said,” Yuu said, “I'd appreciate your Navi's testimony as fast as you could contact her before we continue any further. If she's going to be a material witness then it's best I speak with her.”

“Oh, that shouldn't be very...” Paige trailed off, pulling out her PET. Audrey looked over her shoulder. “...um, Detective Himekago? Were you investigating a murder?”

Pause. “...Yes,” Yuu said. “It's rather grisly business, I was hoping not to bring it up in greater detail. Why?”

“'At a murder scene,'” Audrey read. “'Actually found Tech Kraken just hanging around. He mean-mugged at me. Gonna catch him and pound him. See you in a bit,' and then there's some photos of the Cyberworld.”

Pause.

Yuu slumped over, and held his head in his hands. He let out a loud, pained groan. “Some days,” he said, “some days, there are nothing but problems in my life.”


	12. Episode 4-V: A Home for Lost Navis

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Spring Quadrant_ **

“Hm,” Vespa muttered. “Hm. Hmmm!” She squatted down to give the glass case the stinkeye. “ _Hmmmm!_ ”

Pause.

“...you got this one in star-code?” Vespa said, standing back up. She tapped at the Wind Rack chip in the case. “We don't really use R.”

“Let me,” said the heavy-set, robotic NetDealer behind the counter as he opened some boxes, “check for you.”

Of course, this was largely an abstraction—what he was really doing was going into his own internal filing system to read through his manifests. However, it had long become standard for NetDealers to imitate human storage methods for the sake of maintaining the customers' verisimilitude. Vespa leaned in on the shelf of this dealer's roadside establishment.

“Lucky you,” he said, pulling his head out of the box, “just got a shipment from this one wacko down in ACDC. It'll run you a bit extra, but I'm willing to part with it.”

Vespa fist-pumped. “Sick!”

When buying BattleChips over the net, there was due process to be had. Most PETs came with several 'blank chips', which one could obtain the data of a Chip and place it into. (Of course, some people didn't have those, so most NetDealers possessed their own retinue of blank chips and could send them through mail order—the license to a given iteration of chip data was stored on the PET until the chip itself arrived.)

Vespa marked a delay down for the Wind Rack—after all, she didn't want to spook Paige by having her PET suddenly spawn a new chip. So, the chip would be ready to be set once she returned. While it wasn't something that Vespa would necessarily gravitate towards, Paige was always delighted to find new tactical avenues for NetBattling—surprise presents like this always made her light up in the most delightful way, so it was something Vespa could scarcely resist when she had a bit of extra change in her pocket.

“Hey, just so you know,” the Dealer said, “they say there's been some batty Navi around the place these days. Hasn't hurt anyone, but they say he moves a bit weird... and he thinks he's Shademan.”

“Like, the guy from Nebula?” Vespa said, tilting her head.

“Yeah, that's the one. Haha!” The Dealer laughed to himself a bit more. “Shademan.”

Stepping out from under the awning of the Dealer's establishment, Vespa turned her head to Chronoforce, who leaned against a wall, tap-tap-tapping away at a window as usual. “You good?”

“Hey,” Chronoforce said with a light shrug of his tiny limbs, “I'm always good.”

Whereas the real world was in late summer, beginning to fade into autumn, the Manzo Cyberworld needed pay little heed to the passage of time. To the north, winter—to the east, spring—to the south, summer—and to the west, autumn. The four seasons each had a quadrant to their own, and as the pamphlet Vespa idly read stated, this allowed architects and designers to go hog wild and bring their visions to life. (The pamphlet did not say 'hog wild', of course; this was Vespa's interpretation.)

The two Navis strolled beneath a bright pink lane of sakura blossoms, falling in a light, cool breeze. Cyberkoi leapt out of a small brook to Vespa's right, in the center of the lane, and several Navis strolled across this busy street, nearly as packed with establishments as the real thing, idly browsing for whatever craft goods were on offer. Some were locals, doing their daily shopping; others, like Vespa, were tourists looking for a taste of local tradition.

“Y'know,” Vespa said, “if I'd known a place like this was around when I was on the run in Electopia, I woulda holed up here. Maybe get myself a nice little secret hamlet and just chill.”

“Sounds legit,” Chronoforce said. He paused, blinked, and started grabbing for the pamphlet.

“Summer is this way, we're going the right way,” Vespa said, holding it away from him.

—To explain. When Vespa had taken her leave of meeting Eiji's family, Chronoforce had surreptitiously followed behind her. According to him, he considered the Kikuchi family like a very decadent dessert—very lovely in quantities smaller than he was going to get if he stayed behind. As it turned out, once they had jacked in, Chronoforce claimed there was someone he knew in the area by sheer coincidence, and that she was over in the summer quadrant.

“So,” Vespa said, “tell me about yourself.”

Chronoforce blinked. “What?”

“I mean, I know we've known each other for a few weeks now, but I feel like I haven't really gotten the picture of what kind of guy Chronoforce.EXE is on the _inside_ ,” Vespa said, doing some stupid hand gestures as she did. “What makes you—”

“What makes me... _tick_?” Chronoforce asked.

Pause.

Chronoforce let out a dry laugh and bent over as best someone with his oblong body could. He'd probably have slapped his knees, Vespa thought, if he had arms to do that with... or knees.

“...what?” Vespa asked.

“You know,” Chronoforce said. “Like a clock. The ticking of a clock. My name—my name's _Chronoforce_.”

“Oh!” Vespa said, clapping her hands. “Oh! Yeah, I—I get it now. Yeah.”

Pause. Chronoforce, who had apparently mastered the skill of focusing on two different things at the same time, continued to play his game. “Right,” Vespa said. “So, how long have you and Audrey known each other?”

Chronoforce made an audible humming noise as a few cute little meows came from his screen. “Gotta be... how old is she now?”

“Twenty-two, right?” Vespa asked.

Chronoforce nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Right. So, uhhh...” He trailed off for a moment. “Right, right. She was ten. Twelve years.” He laughed to himself. “You know, you might not believe this, but I remember—she got the biggest, stupidest grin on her face, on account of she got her PET as a Christmas present from her dad. It was one he'd done some work on in the past to make me, so I was in there the whole time, but it took her like, half an hour to actually notice cause I was sitting in the back just doing my own thing, yeah? So I'm just over here and then she sees this spooky-looking horseshoe crab guy just in the background of her new thing and she _screams_.”

Vespa laughed. “She can, like, smile?”

“Yeah, I know,” Chronoforce said. “It's, uh... you'd never think it, right?” He snapped a few of his fingers.

“So you two are _siblings_ , huh?” Vespa asked, and Chronoforce turned his head. “I mean, that explains why she puts up with you.”

Chronoforce stopped walking and took roughly twelve seconds to process this thought. “Huh,” he said. “I guess so, huh.”

“I mean, if her dad made you, you're just as much brothers as those freakin' Hikaris, right?” Vespa said. She gritted her teeth at the thought. “I've never met any of my siblings. The old man only ever had one Navi at once, and he only makes a new one once the old one's gone.”

“Huh,” Chronoforce said. “Weird. I never really thought about the whole siblings thing before.”

“To be fair,” Vespa said, “like—”

She turned on her heel, and began gesticulating. “Okay,” Vespa said, “so Paige's best pal, Mimel, back in Netopia.”

“Blackgold?” Chronoforce asked. Vespa stopped cold. “Like, Mimel Blackgold? The mediumweight MMA champion of Crescent City?”

“You...?” Vespa blinked.

“Yeah, I _watch pro fights_ , you think my right eye doesn't do anything while I play this and nobody's talking to me? I'm a master of pay-per-view television,” Chronoforce said. “So you're best friends with Mimel Blackgold. Gotcha, gotcha.”

“So,” Vespa said, “Mims's mom has—okay, it's a bit complicated, actually. So, first, ol' Daddy Blackgold marries and he has a kid—that's Reinhardt Blackgold, the eldest, very serious guy, great beard, runs a freighter company. Then, he splits up with his wife and finds a second lady, and _they_ have a kid—that's Mims's older sister Nadine, who, much like me, appreciates a good bike and a nice night out. Then that wife bites it, and _then_ he marries Mims's mom, and has Mims and her younger brother Lambert, who, incidentally, is a freaking brat and I don't care how many grades he _could've_ skipped, sometimes the things that boy says makes me wanna give him _so many noogies_ , y'know?”

“Uh-huh,” said Chronoforce, nodding along and having grabbed a cup of cybercoffee as Vespa was talking.

“So, then, about... what, six years ago? Way I hear it, anyway, he was already there when I met him—well, all four of the Blackgold kids's Navis are... also siblings,” Vespa continued. “Like, I donno who's older or younger? But way I hear it, they were all made by the same people for basically the same purposes, so they're siblings. I've only ever met two of 'em, Tundraman's Mims's Navi, he's a smarmy prat but he's got a good fashion sense and he's got a way with ice skates, and then a few times I've met Magmaman, he's Nadine's Navi, kinda has this Roman gladiator thing going on but he's surprisingly chill. Not, like, cold chill, though.”

“I would hope a 'Magmaman' wasn't cold chill,” Chronoforce said.

“Really, though, nice people, the Blackgolds. Mama Blackgold's a good mayor, too. I'm complaining about Lambert, y'know, but I love the little snot, right? It's just sometimes I wanna punch him because he's a really smart fourteen-year-old,” Vespa said, clenching her fist and pounding it into her open palm.

“Oh, yeah,” Chronoforce said, “totally.”

Pause.

“So you got any interests other than pro fights and mobile games involving cats?” Vespa asked.

Chronoforce thought for a moment, which then became two, and three. “Lemme, uh... lemme get back to you on that,” he said, and focused all of his attention on his game.

As they walked, the crowds heading toward the Spring Quadrant began to fade, and the leaves turned a vivid green. The cool breeze stopped, and was replaced with the bright light of an artificial sun. It wasn't as large as an actual lake would be, but one thing the Summer Quadrant of Manzo's Cyberworld boasted was a beach and an area with at least a little bit of simulated water. There were more homes for Navis in this district, Vespa observed. Holes in the ground... oh, well, on some off roads here Vespa even saw a few small viruses, so that was where they'd gone.

Chronoforce's slow gait sped up slightly as the beach area came into view. “She's a sunbather,” he said. “Definitely here.”

Vespa materialized a hair tie and reached back to tie up the body of her hair into a ponytail. Chronoforce, had he an eyebrow to raise, gave her a look that indicated he would've. “What? Keeps me cooler,” she said.

Shrugging, Chronoforce returned to walking slightly faster than he had been.

There were people enjoying their time on the beach, of course, a number of them—Navis of all makes and builds. A colossal pig-shaped Navi hurled a green, kappa-looking Navi into the water to watch him bounce back up as part of a game, for instance... whatever the rules of this game were.

Chronoforce's friend, though, seemed to be perfectly content with avoiding the water entirely. She'd _appropriated_ a beach chair and parasol, and was currently using a screen to direct the sunlight onto herself. “Yo,” Chronoforce said, giving a little wave. “Mandrago.”

“I wasn't expecting to see you here,” Mandrago said. She resembled a plant, more than anything—a furled-up, green-and-pink head that had similar narrow, yellow eyes to Chronoforce's said 'flower' to Vespa. Two long, spindly arms extended from near the top of a thin, spiky 'stem', which ended in pointy appendages with small, visible vines capable of fine motor movement if necessary. Four large thorns curled down over her legs, almost like a dress—but from what Vespa could see, her legs were _drills_ , likely made for burrowing into the ground to root or... something. The thorns looked reversible, though. And... well, she was wearing sunglasses. “To what do I owe the pleasure of the Prince of Lethargy?”

“I was in the area,” Chronoforce said.

“Ah, but of course,” Mandrago said. She turned back to her sun screen. “It would be foolish of me to expect anything less than happenstance with you. Why, even after Ilyana and I have been so generous to you both...” Then, it seemed she had another thought, so she raised her sunglasses to look at Vespa. “Young lady, I haven't your acquaintance, but I would recommend you not take this man too seriously. He is deathly incapable of applying himself to much of anything.”

“I thought you said she was your _friend_?” Vespa said, tilting her head at Chronoforce.

“She is,” Chronoforce said, at the same time Mandrago said, 'I am'.

“I am admittedly a touch _snippy_ after I suffered a rather humiliating defeat in a NetBattle earlier today,” Mandrago said, “but I assure you I say these things entirely out of a fondness for this layabout _tridentanus_.” Pause. “So are you going to introduce us, Chronoforce?”

“Eh,” Chronoforce said.

“Of course,” Mandrago said. She didn't give Vespa the honor of standing up, but she did extend one of her arms over for what amounted to a handshake. “Noble Mandrago. A pleasure.”

“Vespa,” Vespa said. “My operator and me are in Audrey's class. We're pals.”

“I see,” Mandrago said. “Suffice it to say we are well acquainted. I'm sure she would have several choice words for me were I to be a bit overly mouthy about the embarrassing details of her backstory.”

“Yeah, sounds like her,” Vespa said with a nod.

With that understanding, Mandrago's other arm twisted over to uproot the parasol from its position. Vespa had not realized that it belonged to her, but uprooting its stem showed a dual-pointed body akin to the roots of an actual mandrake. Mandrago casually bent its bottom to curve it, _clicked_ the stem into a shorter state, and shook the head of the parasol to drop some of the leaves that had appeared within its consistency, which fell to lay upon the hem of her 'dress'. As such, what was once a beach umbrella had now shifted into a strolling parasol befit for a lady of high stature, which Mandrago gently held over what amounted to her shoulder area.

“'Vespa', you said?” Mandrago asked, and Vespa nodded. “I see. If you continue to be acquainted with dearest Audrey, there is no doubt we shall continue to meet.”

“That is a neat trick,” Vespa said, levying a finger at the parasol.

“It is ever so convenient,” Mandrago said. “Do you have need of Chronoforce? For his impertinence, I would have him show me the way, being that he has been here for a year.” Vespa shook her head. “Very well. Come along, Chronoforce.”

“Huh?” Chronoforce mumbled.

Mandrago sighed and turned her head to Vespa. “The quick wit of a great mind's last remaining legacy, as usual.” She swung the parasol upside-down, and its head inverted before sharpening into several sharp leaves, which she loudly stabbed into the sand. “ _Chronoforce!_ ”

“Oh, uh, yeah?” Chronoforce said. “Hey, c'mere, Koshka, who's a good kitty—”

Vespa leaned into his field of vision. “Bro, I think she wants to go on a date with you.”

“ _Ohhhh_ ,” Chronoforce said, and for the first time in the entire time Vespa had known him, he shut off Wanyadora and actually looked with both eyes at Mandrago. “Okay, sure.”

With a high scoff, Mandrago said, “And may I give thanks that Navikind are not all afflicted with your chronic lethargy.” She began to stroll off, and Chronoforce followed, actually paying full attention. “Be well, Miss Vespa. Thank you for bringing this fool with you.”

“Yeah, good luck with him,” Vespa said.

“Hey,” Chronoforce said, “I'm not that bad.”

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Central Connection Junction_ **

Walking around the outside of the area was not the only way to get around. The center of Manzo's cyberworld represented what almost amounted to a maze of narrow pathways that always seemed, according to the pamphlet, to have a way of getting you where you needed to go. This was also, apparently, where people brought their pets to go on walks and whatnot—one Navi had his Met in his arms, whereas another struggled against three Spikeys on leashes that she could barely keep hold of, on account of they'd probably just seen a mailman or something.

Vespa didn't have much of anywhere to go, so she'd started to aimlessly wander. Being that she'd existed in the Cyberworld for quite some time, she remembered a time when things like this sort of scenery were much rarer. Same with these temperate breezes, or the water—there was a time not too long ago when these were things you came to specific locations to find, not something that a nice country town would just have around.

Still... Vespa smiled up at the sky. The Cyberworld, she thought, really was a nice place. It was nice being able to go between places pretty fast. It was nice being able to see a bunch of different things without being concerned about geography. On the other hand, the real world had that continuity of locations, didn't have some of the troubles, and there was always going to be differences in the experiences between one or the other. Thank god for CopyBots, she thought to herself. Thank god for CopyBots.

This here was a junction at about a sixty-degree angle—Vespa would be turning here. There were a set of orange bushes here, so likely this was at the edge of the Autumn Quadrant and she was just making a turn back inward. One of the bushes was rustling, which wasn't exactly the most normal thing in the world, but... well, Vespa put her hand on one of her Busters just in case.

Then, rising from the bushes—

“Wh-wh-wh-what gives you-utheright to enter my domaiiiiiain?!” So, it wasn't a virus in the bushes, probably, it looked more like a Navi, so there was just a Navi in the bushes. He was—

“Oh,” Vespa said, “ _batty_. A-heh.”

This Navi here wasn't very large. He was a vampire bat, most likely, with small, pointy ears and a bright purple head. One of his eyes jerked about every which way, but the other, or where his optic circuit probably was located, was covered by a monocle. Under the shabby cloak that his wings tried to be, he was clearly very thin, and not even remotely durable or particularly combat-ready. His fingers twitched as he moved, too, and his legs—

Well, as he stood up out of the bushes, one of his legs spontaneously jerked off of the ground and caused him to trip, catching himself on the wall. “...Are you okay?” Vespa asked.

“Need you-you-you—” His head jerked to the side for a moment on the first 'you', and then both of his ears started violently twitching, but then he caught himself, and seemed to have it together, as he stood up and pulled one of his wings over himself. “—concern yourself with _my_ well-being? My dear girl, it is you who has stepped into the realm of danger—”

As he spoke, his entire body was taken by a violent spasm, causing him to shudder uncontrollably for a moment before continuing as though it had never happened. “—for you stand before the _Wailing Gentleman,_ Devilbat Schilt! To a civilian such as yourself, I—” It was really, really rude to laugh, Vespa thought, and yet she laughed. Out loud. Very hard. “What is so funny?!”

“Oh, man, it's just—no, Schilt was taller than you. I knew the guy. And he had a deeper voice, yours is pretty high. And he was smarmier, too—you've got the start of it but no, you've gotta dial up the smarm like two hundred percent,” Vespa said.

“Do not mock me! I am the embodiment of all thin-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-ggggg” His posture completely broke, and he curled inward on himself, all of his limbs going completely stiff. He made a few cracking noises. “gggggs evil! Wh-whee!!”

Much as she couldn't stop herself from laughing, Vespa was rapidly growing deeply concerned for this Navi's health. It was hard to know exactly who to call at times like these, though—she didn't want to call the police on the guy, but she didn't have the numbers of any local doctors or technicians.

Then—he _lurched_ forward, and grabbed Vespa by the shoulders. She flinched, but then she saw his eyes—or, well, the one eye she could see. It wasn't frenzied in that moment, it was _pleading_. “Ko-Ko-Kohaku,” he said, grabbing tighter onto Vespa. “Kohaku! Kohaku.” His voice crackled and glitched coming out of him, but she was pretty sure that he was saying a name.

“Kohaku?” Vespa asked. “Is... that your operator?”

“Koha—ku,” he said. “Kohaku, Kohakuuuu... hurts, it, it hurts—!”

—Some Officials rounded the corner, and Vespa turned her head. “Ma'am,” said the front one, an orange Navi with a round head and a blue visor, “is this guy giving you any trouble?” ('Kohaku, it hurts, Kohaku, Kohaku!')

Vespa looked down at him, and then said, “Uh, no, officer. I'm good. I'm... I'm keeping track of him while his operator goes and gets some stuff, he's—damaged, but he's got a unique build so we're not sure you can get the right stuff in just Manzo.” She inwardly prayed that he remained at whatever lucidity he was currently in, and didn't start yelling about being an infamous gangster again until the cops were gone.

The Official looked down at the bat, and then shrugged and said, “If you say so, Ma'am.” Crisis averted! They walked past, and were on their way.

Once they were out of earshot and sight, Vespa had to deal with this frail little guy currently trying to crackle for what might've been his operator. “I'm, uh,” Vespa said to the boy—because he probably was a 'boy', given the voice, “I'm gonna try and help you find Kohaku. Okay?”

“Koha...ku?” The boy said. His limbs jerked and spasmed for a moment, and then—“O-okay.”

“Alright,” Vespa said, and she transitioned him to on her back—the little bat wasn't too heavy to carry piggyback, thankfully. “So, do you know where I can find—”

“Holding a vampire on your back,” the boy said, “is a pretty gutsy move. Wh-whee!! It almost makes me _thirsty_ , wh-whee!!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vespa said, “your fangs couldn't drink anything I've got anyway.” The boy attempted to use a Noise Crush attack like the notorious Shademan, but he barely got more than a squeak out before his head jerked upward and he stopped. “Okay, kid, don't worry. We'll find her.”

“...I don't need anyone,” the boy said, his voice having dropped to something vaguely pretending to be a deeper tone. “I don't need friends. Friends just make you weaker—”

“Mmhm,” Vespa said, “mmhm.”

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Winter Quadrant_ **

There was snow on the ground, here—snow that crunched beneath Vespa's feet as the boy above her tried desperately to remain coherent. The light of the sun had faded, and the air had grown chilly, as snowflakes lilted through the air and landed atop frost-heavy bushes. Crossing into the Winter Quadrant from the center took Vespa over a wooden bridge with red handrails, which crested over a river. Lilypads lazily floated across the river, and the sound of the running water was a nice break, as it seemed to be something that could get the boy to quiet down just slightly—

“Nnnnnnngghhghghnghghgnnnn!!” Nope, quiet was over. “The running water! The running-g water! Vampires can't cross running water! Do you mean to torture me?! I am a gentleman and I shall not take this insult!”

There were some pagodas set up to view the snowflakes, each with a crackling bonfire in a brazier at its center to give passers by a relief from the chill. There was a sheet of ice to one direction on which Navis could ice skate, if they so desired—what a luxury, Vespa thought, I'll have to let Tundraman know about this. As with anywhere in Manzo, there were a number of ways Vespa _could_ go aside from the main street; several alleyways did go off into deeper into the city.

However, Vespa spotted someone she knew, surprisingly enough. Well, 'knew' was a strong word, but slumped against a stone lantern on the side of the path, obviously at least a little exhausted, was the knight who'd called herself Blade and saved Vespa, Stingray, and Pegasolta from Vulturon just hours before. Her teeth were gritted, and she breathed heavily as she leaned against the lantern.

“Hey!” Vespa said, picking up her pace to head over to Blade. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“...Vespa?” Blade muttered, before raising her head to see them—“ _Necrobat!_ ”

“Ko—Kohaku—” The bat crackled, and Vespa thought she heard a little sniffle.

Ignoring her exhaustion, Blade stood up and hurried over to Vespa's side, grabbing hold of Necrobat and putting him on the ground. She let out a heavy sigh of relief. “I've been looking everywhere for you. Necrobat—” She looked up at Vespa. “Where did you find him?”

“Huh? Uh, over in the bushes between the center and Autumn,” Vespa said. She blinked. “You know him?”

“Yes,” Blade said, holding one side of her head, “come on, I need to get him back home.” From one back to another, it seemed. “Follow me.”

“Mm'kay,” Vespa said, and she did so. Blade took them down one of those alleyways, taking a series of turns, double-taking a few times to make sure, Vespa guessed, that nobody was following them except her. They then entered into a dead-end alleyway, and Blade pulled open a passkey and stuck it into the open bottom of a paper lantern just to the left of the end of the path to unlock a tucked-away door.

Blade stood aside to allow Vespa to enter, and Vespa opened the door and stepped inside. For how secretive it was, she was actually rather impressed by the immediate air of _hominess_. A warm orange light from a recreation of a few lamps atop ordinary cyber-wooden nightstands lit up the walls of the round central chamber. It wasn't large by any means—Vespa only saw two other doors in Blade's home, one to each side of the room. A rug in a tasteful checkerboard pattern sat beneath a rounded table, and a cozy black sofa lay at the far end.

The close wall to Vespa's right had a cyber TV, which was definitely a bit retro to have in your home, but it was probably up to taste. A small coat rack, too, sat by the door, and Blade removed Necrobat's shabby cloak—with those detached, Vespa finally noticed that the structure of his wings was naught but bone. She removed her own, as well, revealing more of the beetle-like armor that covered her body. Wherever Blade's logo was, it was covered by her armor, segmented and tough upon her torso. Vespa thought she even saw some simulated chain mail—whoever had designed Blade, or given her that armor, was likely a real stickler for details.

On a small cabinet just to the side of the coat rack was a glass case, evidently for Blade's... blade. “Please don't touch it without reason,” she said, when Vespa's eyes met her sword. “This blade—it wouldn't do for you to hold it.”

“Uh, yeah,” Vespa said. Okay, coat rack and cabinet and stuff to that side, table here—“Where should I put him?”

Blade pointed over to the right-side door. “His bed is in there, as is mine. His is the purple one.”

“Ah,” Necrobat said, “so it is time again for me to sleep... but the band still begins to play. Are you ready for the Mu-Mu-Musical of Blood?!”

The bedroom wasn't large, either. Both of the beds were small, uncomplicated affairs. Nevertheless, this was clearly a lived-in room—why, to the side of Necrobat's bed was a bin chock full of books that had been thoroughly read, cover to cover. Vespa lay the boy down in his bed as he continued rambling about fresh Hunter blood, or whatever, and Blade came in once her sword was properly fastened.

“I'm sorry, Necrobat,” Blade said, sitting down by him on the bed. He snapped to lucidity, and looked back at her—and though much of Blade's face was covered by her helmet, that smile was very obvious. “I was... late coming home. I'm going to make it better now, alright?”

Necrobat was too jittery to properly nod, but to Vespa it looked like he did something close. Blade nodded back, and opened up his monocle. Vespa couldn't help but gasp—there was something _growing_ inside there, an object that looked almost to be between solid and liquid—glimmering, like a gemstone, with its black and blue glow, and yet _viscous_ , seeming to shift and change shape when observed.

Blade sighed. “Necrobat... how long has this been going on? You should've told me you were in pain.” She patted him on the head. “Alright. It'll only be a moment.” With one hand, she reached in and placed her finger in a piece of the odd gem-like thing, and Necrobat audibly flinched. Then, she slowly _draaaaagged_ out, and the formation inside of his eye socket resisted at first, but then began to slide out itself. It was deeper than just his eye socket, apparently—the mass that Blade removed was certainly large enough to have reached inside of his head.

Eventually, Blade muttered, “Ah. There you are.” Necrobat's movements had gone still, as the substance from within him had been pulled further and further out, revealing an amount almost as large as Blade's hand. At the very deepest, though, the black and blue glow intensified, and a small, perfectly solid fragment, buried within the muck, appeared. Blade picked up her broadsword, and its segmented body shifted into a much shorter form, akin to a paring knife, as she pulled it in to begin cutting the blue fragment out again.

The yellow light within Blade's weapon, as it shined upon the loosened soft solid, withered it away and caused it to vanish into dust as she chipped pieces away. Vespa sat down on a closed box to watch her at work, and marveled at how gently she was able to slice away pieces of this bizarre substance. “What is it?” she asked, finally remembering her curiosity.

“Give me a moment, and I'll explain,” Blade said. Her cuts became finer and finer, until eventually she reached the shining fragment. “There.” She placed the fragment back inside Necrobat's eye socket, and pushed it in until it disappeared from view.

Necrobat was now no longer still or jerky—he made simulated breathing motions as his eye rested. It looked as though he'd fallen asleep. Blade patted him on the head again, and reached down to gently kiss him on the forehead.

“Don't take this the wrong way,” Vespa said (and she was quiet, thank you,) “but you didn't strike me from looking at you as the kissing on the forehead type.”

“Mm,” Blade said. “The armor may perhaps give the wrong impression. Please forgive me if I don't feel the need to kiss _you_ on the forehead, though.” Vespa snorted.

When the two left the room and closed the door to let Necrobat rest, Blade made a decent faith effort at properly hitting her sofa, and then proceeded to slump down entirely. “Forgive me,” she said, “I'm not in the best state myself.”

“Hey, I get it,” Vespa said, sitting down on the other end of the sofa. It was a sofa for two, so it still wasn't very far between them. “I mean, what, you had to grapple all the way from out there to here to get home? I'd be beat.”

“True,” Blade said. “Very true.”

There was a pause. “So, I guess—I guess Vulturon _called_ you Blade, so I'd been thinking of that as your name,” Vespa said. “But I guess it's just your executable, huh?”

“Mm,” Blade said. She nodded.

“So...” Vespa said, one arm reclining on the sofa, “should I call you Kohaku?”

There was a moment's pause. “Yes,” Kohaku said. “It's not as though it's a secret I need to keep.”

“Oh, I get it,” Vespa said, nodding. “I mean, it's not like I don't have any experience with naming myself, but... I mean, I woke up one day about a week after we met and I find out Paige went and changed the metadata of my executable to match my name, and I don't show her this of course—would look way uncool if I did—but I'll admit I cried a little.”

“Your operator seems like a very sweet woman,” Kohaku said. Vespa blinked. “I've never met the girl personally, but I had heard of her in relation to you. I had gotten the impression she was quite the improvement.”

“Oh, god, you have no idea,” Vespa said. Oh, she suddenly realized, a cooler by the side of the sofa. “You mind if I crack one open?” Kohaku shook her head, and Vespa opened up a cola. The satisfying _crack_ of the thing was something Vespa blessed every day she got to experience in the Cyberworld—how had she lived over ten years without that wonderful sound beforehand?! Miserably, no doubt. Miserably. “She's real sweet. I like her a lot. One of these days, she's gonna get herself a girlfriend, and then I'll probably be a maid of honor at her wedding and I'm gonna cry like a baby.”

“How sweet,” Kohaku said. Vespa took a drink. “I can't say I expected you to be on your way to Manzo, of all places.”

“Funny how things work out, huh?” Vespa laughed. “So does that helmet come off, or?” Kohaku looked away. “What?”

“It's funny,” Kohaku said. “Here I am in the comfort of my own home, and yet I feel nervous to show my face.” She paused. “I... really am sorry about Necrobat. He's a kind boy, really. Very curious. It's not his fault.”

“You don't have to be worried about showing your face, first off,” Vespa said. She turned her head to look directly at Kohaku. “Really, I get it. You don't have to be embarrassed.”

After a moment's silence, Kohaku said, “Give me a moment.” She closed her eyes. Vespa actually recognized this—in her own original appearance, she hadn't been entirely humanoid, and had had no exposed skin worked into the design. When removing an armament or piece of clothing, to show what was not the default, or to have anything beneath what was never meant to be removed, a Navi needed to focus to temporarily script their appearance data away from their original design. Vespa, herself, closed her eyes when she had done this in the past—it helped her to visualize what had eventually become her modern appearance, step by step.

Then, without opening her eyes, Kohaku reached up and flicked a latch on the back of her helmet, causing a burst of simulated steam to emanate from the neck of her armor. As she lifted it, a long head of brown hair fell out, with a rich, even tone and a fair hint of volume that Vespa's straight hair could definitely not match. When she opened her eyes, they were about the same color.

Vespa honestly couldn't help but be surprised—Kohaku looked _younger_ than she expected from her tone and behavior, perhaps a year or two younger than Vespa herself. If she were a human, Vespa wouldn't have been surprised to see the fair, unblemished skin, thin lips, tiny, pointy little nose, all of that, on an ordinary high school girl passing by on the street.

Kohaku reached into her helmet and pulled out a blue hair tie and hair band from somewhere or another, placing the hairband atop her head, behind her ears, and tying the back of her hair up into a large ponytail. Still didn't do anything about those bangs, though.

“I don't see the resemblance,” Vespa said, and Kohaku turned and raised her eyebrow. “Between us. Necrobat thought I was you.”

“Ah,” Kohaku said, giving a little chuckle. “Pass me one?” Vespa did so, and Kohaku opened it. “Sometimes I wonder how we lived without that sound for so long.”

“You too?!” Vespa said, pounding the cushion beneath her. “I was literally _just_ thinking that. Great minds think alike, man.” Both of them nodded.

The serious, quiet expression on Kohaku's face was a lot more obvious with more than her mouth to go on. “That's a pretty neat sword,” Vespa said, nodding her head over at Kohaku's sword, which she'd managed to get into the case before crashing earlier. “How it changes shape like that. Must be convenient.”

“It comes with its fair share of problems,” Kohaku said.

“You don't look like a Kohaku,” Vespa said. Kohaku raised her eyebrow again. “I—well, I guess you do, since—well, your hair and eyes are the right color—it's just usually you dress like someone I'd expect to see at a Creamland ren faire.”

“You go to ren faires?” Kohaku asked.

“I mean, no, but I feel like people usually have a decent image of what one finds at a ren faire, right? And I mean, their queen's got that big ol' lad of a Navi, right? What's his name, uhhh...” Vespa snapped her fingers a few times. “Knightman, yeah.”

Kohaku nodded. “I don't originally come from Electopia, but the country has wound up becoming a home to me more than any other. It felt right to me to take on a name that suited it.” Pause. “It's not as though you were a wasp originally. Or did the change in name come second?”

Vespa blushed, and looked away. “Promise you won't tell anyone?” Kohaku murmured her assent. “I saw this cool scooter while I was on the run, right? And it had a cool-sounding name.”

Kohaku laughed aloud. “And you changed subfamilies for that?”

“Yeah, I did!” Vespa said, stage shouting so as not to be too loud. “Wanna fight about it?!”

—Considering that Kohaku was previously acquainted with Vulturon and had a working knowledge of Dr. Scuttler's work, it didn't come as much of a surprise that she would know about those aspects of Vespa's past. Still, though... “So what is your deal?” Vespa asked. “You and Vulturon don't seem to be on good terms.”

“I don't believe a man such as him would be on good terms with anyone with a working sense of justice,” Kohaku said.

“So how'd you get wrapped up in all this?” Vespa asked. “Quite a situation you've got going on here, fighting the mafia and taking care of a sick kid.”

Averting her eyes, Kohaku said, “The situation is... more complex than that.”

“That's fine,” Vespa said, leaning back again and taking another drink of her cola. “I mean, hey, a lot must've happened. I don't mind not knowing, just as long as you aren't hurting anybody.”

Kohaku was silent for a few moments before responding, “Thank you.” Then, a few more moments of silence. “I... appreciate that.”

“Alright,” Vespa said, “that said, I'm pretty curious about things that aren't your origin story.”

She'd been somewhat relaxed beforehand, but Kohaku's posture straightened as she turned her head back to Vespa. “I've been protecting Necrobat here for some time,” she said. “It was quite a bit of work to find a proper home, but we've been able to maintain this one. I don't know exactly about the people they deal with, but Necrobat...” She trailed off. “Alright, I should start from the top. You remember, of course, the incident that ended the Vile Numbers.”

Vespa nodded. “Yeah, 'course I do. A buncha people'd quit by then, so I think by then all that was left was... me, Queenie, Uncle Mino, Schilt, Vulturon, Schilt's partner—I never knew the guy—and I think Boarski and... Boarski and Warfly were still around, yeah. So it was the eight of us, the old man, Wolff, that dupe Schilt conned into serving as his operator, and Warfly's operator whose name I forget.

“The Hikaris were messing up Schilt's plans like hell, and he and his partner had been fighting or whatever. So, when the Hikaris turned out to have found out where the base was, and they were coming, there was a freakout. The six people who were still left on call got made to assemble and stand in the Hikaris' way. But, then, y'know, Uncle Mino comes up to me and Queenie and he says he's not going to try and stop them. They already beat him once, and he isn't at his best and he wouldn't feel good about giving them a clean fight. And he says we should consider it, too, and consider what we want to do with our lives.

“Now, they charge through Queenie and Boarski, and Scuttler says we're up next, so we're going to meet them on his turf. But... I mean, I've already lost to these guys once. I got _humiliated_. They clowned on me and even got a Chip with my ugly old face on it, and I'm still mad as hell about it. And they get there, and we start fighting, and I think to myself, is this really it? Am I really maybe going to get deleted fighting for people I don't even care about? And...”

Vespa trailed off, and Kohaku wasn't saying anything. Vespa took a deep breath in. “Well... I had some stuff going on, myself, y'know.”

“I do,” Kohaku said.

“So... I decide right then and there. I lower my Buster, and I cut the connection to Scuttler's PET and I start running. I don't look back. I run and I run and I run until I'm not even sure where I am anymore, and then I turn back and I see that tower Schilt liked so much blown sky high, and up there in the sky I see Megaman, in one of those crazy forms of his, landing the final hit on Schilt and sending him down into the dirt. And I turn and I keep running. And I hear later that Schilt's gone, he straight up died,” Vespa said. “And it's all over.”

“It was a bit rude of you,” Kohaku said, “to leave Queenbee to suffer another loss after you.”

“I can apologize if we run into each other again, okay? It was awkward! Like, I wasn't sure what to say, and I think neither of us were really happy, but—” Vespa sputtered. “Whatever. So. I missing anything?”

Kohaku leaned forward, and placed her elbows on her forelegs. “Vulturon avoided the fight, as well, on Schilt's orders. After that, Megaman did battle with Schilt's partner, who you didn't know. And that was the end of the Vile Numbers.”

“Wait, Vulturon dipped out, too?” Vespa asked. “Why?”

“How much did you know about Devilbat Schilt?” Kohaku asked. “Obviously, you were acquainted—your operator worked for him. But did you ever learn about his purposes as a Navi?” Vespa shook her head. “It comes down to their Core Programs.”

—At the words 'Core Program', Vespa unthinkingly grimaced. It wasn't as though it was a new term to her, or one that was unusual. Any Navi that wasn't a simple Normal Navi had a Core Program, the program that defined their basic functions and design. Some called it like a 'soul', but that wasn't necessarily true... but then, it wasn't _not_ true, either.

For instance, she recalled, she'd heard once from the old man about a sentient virus created to spawn other viruses, which had been altered into a Navi by changing parts of its virus functions into a Core Program—no other changes had needed to be made. The Navi, Zero.EXE, had gone on to assist law enforcement in taking in a dangerous terrorist through using his modified Core Program to control existing viruses that had spawned from him on said terrorist's computer.

While creating viruses, then, was a virus's role, controlling viruses was one that a Navi already had—removing that one aberrant facet had been all that was needed to turn the core of that hyper-advanced virus into something recognizable as a true 'living being'. So, it wasn't necessarily a 'soul', but it wasn't necessarily _not_ a 'soul', either. Or, rather, a Core Program was something that _could be_ a soul, because it wasn't like Vespa was about to dunk on all the many nice Normal Navis she'd met that, from a metaphysical perspective, definitely had souls, most likely. Of course, then you had to consider—

Vespa shook her head, and scratched at her hair a bit. “Sorry.” The phrase brought up unpleasant memories for Vespa.

“The 'Lor-a-lua' Core that Vulturon operates with,” Kohaku said, placing her can down on the table now that it was empty, “is a program that can raise junk and scrap data into mobile forms through sound waves. You know this. You've seen him use it.” Vespa nodded. “The issue is Schilt's Core. It's a one-of-a-kind Core—the program 'Demerzel'.”

“Never heard of it,” Vespa said.

“That's natural,” Kohaku said. “One ability it grants Schilt is the ability to retain his consciousness in a state of pure electricity once his body has been destroyed, allowing him to avoid deletion if his 'spirit' isn't grounded. Schilt's contingency plan, then, was that if he were to be defeated, he would allow his spirit to go into hiding and attempt to locate Vulturon. Then, Vulturon would recombine the destroyed pieces of Schilt's body and allow Schilt to re-possess himself.”

“That's a neat trick,” Vespa said.

“However,” Kohaku said, “Demerzel, Schilt's Core Program, was destroyed when they later found it. All that was left was a few shattered pieces of what used to be Schilt's body. It wasn't going to be sufficient, not even remotely. This,” and she paused a moment for what must've been effect, “was where the Einherjar came in.

“The aims of the leaders of the Einherjar are not something that I know. However, I do know that Vulturon and Schilt entered into a partnership with them. For the Einherjar, the resources amassed by a now-dead crime lord; for Schilt, their network would allow them to obtain pieces of scrap data from other locations to make up the difference. The data they obtained came from any number of locations—fragments of a defused bomb in Okuden, bits and pieces of Nebula operatives in the Undernet... however, when Vulturon attempted to raise the body together, it wasn't able to remain together. It would simply fall apart,” Kohaku said.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Vespa said, “so you're saying—?”

“Necrobat was born then, but he wasn't yet able to remain cohesive. The first thing he remembers clearly is one of the leaders of the Einherjar looking down at him, smiling, having placed that Moon Fragment in his empty eye socket.” Kohaku rubbed one of her temples. “I don't know what it is. Apparently, it's a dear treasure to the Navi who gave it to him. What I do know is that it's completely indestructible by any method I know of, and it's taken the place of the empty Core inside of Necrobat's scrap body—it's what gives him the power to remain together. And yet...”

“And it grows, huh?” Vespa asked.

“It's erratic when it happens, but the fragment will occasionally sprout that bizarre substance you saw. It'll grow inside of him, and start destroying his cohesiveness from the inside. Pieces of whatever Navis he was built from begin to take over his mind. I have to prune it, as you saw. He's _supposed_ to tell me when he feels it happen, but...” Kohaku sighed.

“So,” Vespa said, “you're basically raising Schilt and Vulturon's kid for them because they're bad parents, and that's their beef with you?”

Kohaku nodded, and looked up at the ceiling. “Not only the Moon Fragment, of course, but the pieces of Schilt's data still present inside Necrobat—I know he desires them. I knew from the moment I met Necrobat that I needed to keep Necrobat out of Schilt's hands, not just for the sake of hurting whatever Schilt's ambitions may be, but—”

Oh, speak of the devil. The door from the bedroom, and the small, bony bat, looking even smaller now that he wasn't constantly jerking and spasming, opened the door. “Um,” Necrobat said, awkwardly shuffling out of the room, “I... I-I'm really sorry, Kohaku. It's just—well...”

“First,” Kohaku said.

“Eh?” Necrobat blinked. Vespa noticed that his ears stayed down when he was lucid, so that probably had something to do with how small he looked now. Then—“Oh!” He turned to Vespa and bowed. “Um, thank you for helping me, ma'am. That was very kind of you.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Vespa said, smiling at him.

“I—well, I didn't wanna—” Necrobat started stammering, turning back to Kohaku and then immediately averting his eye. “I didn't wanna, um, bother you? You seemed really busy the past few days, and I had plenty to read, so it wasn't so bad for a bit—”

Kohaku stood up out of her chair, her nose huffing, and Necrobat squeaked. She stomped over to him, her fists balled, and then knelt down and hugged him tightly. “I'm so glad you're okay,” she said. “I was scared to death when I came home and you weren't there.”

“But you're not dead?” Necrobat said. Pause. “Oh—um, right. I'm—”

“I know what it really was,” Kohaku said, with a scolding frown on her face even as she hugged him. “You wanted to stay up and keep doing your own thing instead of letting me help you.”

“I mean, it—it _hurts_ , Kohaku!” Necrobat said. “And—I mean, it feels weird! I can't move! At all!”

Vespa stood up off of the couch, walked up to Necrobat, and then proceeded to lightly pinch his cheek. “Take your medicine, kiddo.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Necrobat said. As Kohaku let go of him, he bowed again. “Um, your name was... Miss Vespa, right?”

“That's right,” Vespa said. “I guess me and Kohaku are friends now.”

“Oh, that's wonderful!” Necrobat said, clapping his hands. “Kohaku needs more friends.” Kohaku gritted her teeth and recoiled as though she'd been physically struck. “What?”

Vespa laughed. “Yeah, she seems pretty dour. She'd probably be more popular if she smiled more.”

Necrobat was small enough that he managed to fit between the two of them on the sofa, so now there were three on the sofa. “—and I've been reading _Cain's Jawbone_ recently and trying to figure it out,” he said, looking at Vespa. “It's a murder mystery, and it's really hard, I thought I'd read a lot but I feel like I've gotta take a break from it and work on it slowly.”

“I've never had a head for those things,” Vespa said. “I just read 'em and then I go, ooh, wow, when the detective says who did it.”

“That's valid,” Necrobat said. “I mean, there's no wrong way to read a mystery novel.” He scratched behind one of his ears, and probably would've blushed a little bit if he was capable of it. “I mean, I think that's what's so neat about them, really.”

“My operator and her friends are seeing a detective today,” Vespa said. Necrobat lit up. “Some famous boy detective—”

“You're actually gonna get to meet Yuu Himekago?!” Necrobat said, leaning in very close. “Can I get his autograph please please please?!”

“That'd be a bit tough,” Vespa said, “but I'll see what I can do.” Necrobat vibrated in excitement for a moment, still in close to Vespa, but then—

Necrobat's ears perked up. “Miss Vespa? You don't seem very healthy.”

“Heh?” Vespa scrunched her nose and let out a confused grunt. “Hey, worry about yourself, kid.”

“It's just, I got a reading off of my sonar and there are a lot of parts you aren't using—um, may I see your Custom Screen for a moment?” Necrobat put his hands together and bowed his head.

Vespa shrugged, sighed, and opened it up for him to see, placing the holographic display on the table in front of the sofa so that Necrobat could use it. “Don't toy with it too much,” Vespa said. “And the charge function's just broken, don't try and mess with it.”

Kohaku audibly grimaced as she looked at some of Vespa's specs. Necrobat, meanwhile, moved over from the basic Custom Screen, depicting things like Vespa's overall durability and firepower, to some of the more nitty-gritty. The Navi Customizer had an abnormal layout, as its middle four panels were unusable and broken for _personal reasons_ , but Paige had definitely done some good work with it—Vespa had never found reason to complain. “Ah, yes—um, here it is!” Necrobat said, scrolling over to a small program and opening it up.

Vespa blinked at the menu following. There were, like, four kind of complicated bars and graphs, some of which were greyed out and some of which were filled in red, and a bunch of statistic data and—“What is this?”

Both Necrobat and Kohaku turned to her and stared at her. It was Necrobat who said, “Wait, you don't know?”

“I mean, there's no reason to mess with a good thing, right?” Vespa said. “The program did enough on its own, I thought I never needed to—” Pause. “Wait, why does the kid know about this stuff?”

“He's got a knack for it,” Kohaku said.

Necrobat's eye sparkled with a giddy little intensity. “You see! You see! It's actually quite interesting—this is the Style-Operated Upgrade Ladder, or SOUL, which is a primary equivalent of the Core Program for Normal Navis. Actually, the reason people refer to the Core Program as a 'soul' is because of the acronym of this program entering common parlance!”

Vespa blinked. “Huh.”

“So, seeing as your Core Program is... um, missing?” Necrobat said, tilting his head. “Not here. Um, your operator must've installed a SOUL inside you to take up some of the slack. It was a pretty smart move on her part, actually! See, look here—”

Necrobat gestured toward the screen, pointing one of his fingers toward the main four graphs. “Essentially, the way it works is that the SOUL tracks a Navi's combat style and allows them to develop their abilities over time accordingly. It's what allows Normal Navis to fight differently from each other despite lacking a proper Core Program, by developing their abilities over time to suit their preferences.”

“Ohhh,” Vespa said, nodding. “So it's like... is this how you get things like those Style Changes some Navis have?”

“Yes, yes!” Necrobat nodded. “See, here, you've got—the top graph here is your Trickster data, this marks down your evasiveness and speed-based maneuvers. The increases are incremental, but in layman's terms you can essentially describe it on a five level scale, and I'd put you at about a level 3.2 for Trickster. Then, um,” and he pointed to the next one down, which was greyed out but still had some slight filling inside the graph, “well, um, evidently your Swordmaster function isn't... properly working? Which isn't very surprising, since you—well, um, anyway, Swordmaster governs melee fighting and the usage of weapons, so you must use some melee-based Battle Chips, right?”

Vespa nodded. “Yeah, we use a few of them.”

“Right, right.” Necrobat pointed to the next one down, and this one was _real_ full. “Here, this is Gunslinger, which is for ranged fighting and gunplay. Your Gunslinger score is really impressive—you're not quite to the absolute maximum yet but you're very close! And then—” The one at the bottom was greyed out, too, and it had basically nothing inside it. “Um, you don't seem to enjoy defense much, do you, Miss Vespa? Your Royalguard doesn't function properly.”

Shrugging, Vespa leaned back and said, “Used to be able to. Not really my thing.”

“Well, um, anyhow,” Necrobat said, “I was looking at it, and it looks like you haven't really been taking full advantage of it. Er, that is—do you actually fight any differently than you first did when you got this?”

“Huh,” Vespa said, crossing her arms and manifesting her Busters by her sides. “Well, when I first met Paige, the homing on my bullets' auto-targeting used to be a lot worse. They shot slower, hurt less... And there is this one function,” and she raised up a finger and pulled up the reticle over her eyes. “At some point, this thing showed up, and it kinda lets me... like, I drag my Busters over a bunch of guys and my Busters shoot a bunch of shots at once at all of them. But other than that I've kind of just gotten better at it, I guess.”

Necrobat's ears drooped. “That's good, but with a rating this high—oh, um... do you mind if I edit your permissions for a moment?”

Vespa grimaced and took a very sharp breath in. “What for?”

“If you have your permissions set such that your SOUL can provide live feedback,” Necrobat said, “you'll be able to develop new abilities instead of simply improving what you already have. Er—think about it like this. So, your Busters in their current form, um, you already had those. And you've gotten a lot of improvements for them over the course of improving your Gunslinger score. But say there was some important new feature that changed the way you fought that you unlocked at level 2, and that would keep getting upgrades as you leveled it up further, too. That sort of data hasn't been properly reaching you.”

—It took a moment before Vespa realized entirely what he meant. “Oh,” she said. “So...” She looked down at her Busters. They were holsterable firearms now, rather than an in-built weapon, and in modifying them so, in her haste she'd cut them off from several internals. “So you're saying... Okay, basically what you're saying is I've gotten really, really good at doing what I can already do, but there's a bunch of potential for new things that I could've already learned how to do, but didn't because I fucked myself and my permissions up.”

After a moment's pause to think about the wording, Necrobat nodded and said, “Yes, basically.”

Vespa turned inward for a moment to think. The idea of anyone but Paige editing her permissions, and especially doing so like that, did fill her with a bit of anxiety. But—well, that was nothing compared to the pit of anxiety she felt when Flauclaws first brought up Scuttler's name. She'd barely been able to think straight. This incident having followed them—it likely meant they would meet again.

And... Paige was always improving. Editing the deck, becoming a better Netbattler. She was always improving. No matter how much the idea scared Vespa, if she was going to have to face the old man again, and Paige was putting in her best effort—then it was only right for Vespa to do so even if she really didn't want to, right?

Vespa looked over at Kohaku's sword.

With a sudden, glowering seriousness, Vespa stood up off the sofa with Necrobat still reading her Custom Screen, pulled out her Busters, and then— _slammed_ them together. The two six-shooters' bullet holes flipped open, and as they slammed together, the Busters latched together and shifted shape slightly into a more ergonomic, single form. Shifting away from the flaps on the side, the chambers elongated.

Having merged into one, her Busters were no longer two six-shooters—Vespa brandished a shotgun, now. “Like this, huh?” Vespa asked.

Kohaku gave her a golf clap, and then said, “If you fire that inside my home, I will cut you down where you stand.” Necrobat, for his part, actually did clap.

Vespa holstered her new shotgun—hm, if the six-shooters were the Vesper Chasers, then maybe... Vesper Buckshot, that sounded rad—and turned back, grinning. “You were the one who gave me the idea.”

“It's a reasonable principle,” Kohaku said, crossing her legs and placing her elbow on the side of her sofa. “Your original Buster—”

“Could change shape anyway, yeah,” Vespa said. “I just figured I broke that when I messed with 'em and all.”

Kohaku sighed and frowned. “How on Earth can someone possibly be this incurious about her own internal workings?”

“Yeah, switch the permissions, Necrobat,” Vespa said, and gave him a thumbs up. “Maybe I'll give Paige some crazy surprises, and she'll go,” and she put her hands under her chin and started wiggling back and forth with eyes closed, “oh, wow, Vespa, you really are the best Navi ever created! I'm so glad we're partners! And I'll go,” and she put on an incredibly loudly smug grin and swung her hips to give herself some swagger, “yeah, well, I couldn't do it without you, toots.”

“Um!” Necrobat raised his hand, and Vespa nodded at him. “If Miss Paige is your operator, then she's the one who installed this in you in the first place. She would probably know that you had a lot of potential you hadn't been using.”

Pause.

Vespa coughed. “Oh, god. Do I have to—Should I apologize?” She started pacing around, rubbing her forehead. “I feel like I should apologize. Like, I—wow. Okay. I mean, I trusted her, y'know, but—have I been hurting her feelings? Does she stay up at night wondering if I've ever even really noticed how well she's helped me survive?”

With a pained groan, Vespa stopped pacing to fall to her hands and knees, wailing on the ground. “I hate thinkiiiiing!”

“I'm... glad I could help?” Necrobat said, with a nervous look to Kohaku. Kohaku patted him on the head and smiled at him.

“Ugh,” Vespa said, staggering up, “first I get my butt kicked by a weeby horse, and now I had to actually engage in introspection! I don't know which is worse!” Even when she was stood up, though, her shoulders sagged. “Maybe I should seek therapy.”

“Is introspection really that hard?” Necrobat asked Kohaku. Kohaku shrugged.

“Okay,” Vespa said, whipping her head up, “it is time to stop thinking about the intricacies of my own mental state and return to being an irreverent, wisecracking cool kid.” She raised up three fingers. “Three. Two. One.” With a deep breath in, Vespa closed her eyes, then reopened them and pumped her fists. “Al-right, mojo back!”

After a few more minutes' conversation, Vespa said, “I should probably get going. I don't wanna impose too long and I wanna be sure I can get back as soon as they're done.” Inwardly, she wondered what on earth was taking this detective so darn long. “Thanks for having me!”

Kohaku, who'd put her helmet and cloak back on to see Vespa off, nodded. “You helped Necrobat,” she said, “and I already knew I could most likely trust you.”

“And, uh...” Vespa scratched her head. “Well, I guess you two don't really have PETs, but—I mean, do you want my number?”

Since Kohaku's helmet was back on, the neutral line of her lips didn't tell Vespa much. “Your number?”

“Yeah,” Vespa said. She grinned. “I mean, we're friends now, right?”

“Oh, you'd—” Necrobat, who was almost entirely camouflaged by Kohaku's cloak, perked up. “Um, would you like to come over again? Is that—?”

“Yeah, sure,” Vespa said. She knelt down to rub Necrobat's head. “Ahh, heck, I can't resist a good sob story. I'm sure Paige'll be on board, too. I guess if I tell her to get more friends, it's fine for me to get more friends too, right?”

Kohaku had looked down, her mouth hidden by the cloak. “Friends, hm?”

“Uh-huh,” Vespa said. “I mean, you saved me, you're cool, and I've spent a while inside your house. I think we're friends now. So... call me if you need anything, y'know?”

There was a moment of silence, and then—“Of course,” Kohaku said, nodding. “It's... nice to hear you say that.”

“Aw, heck,” Vespa said, proceeding to rub the top of Kohaku's helmet, too (which got a grunt and a grimace,) “you kids got me all sentimental. Big Sis Vespa's gotta go now, though.”

There wasn't much chance for a wave and a goodbye as Vespa left, given the secrecy of the home, but both Kohaku and Necrobat bowed to Vespa as she left. “I hadn't known entirely what to expect from you,” Kohaku said, “but it seems... I can't help but find you likable, Vespa.”

“Cryptic _and_ complimentary, you've really got this thing down,” Vespa said, giving a wave over her shoulder as she put her hand on the doorknob. “Later! Call me if you need me! I'm fast, I can ride motorcycles!”

* * *

_**Date: August 29, 20XX** _

**_Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Autumn Quadrant_ **

There were a lot more trees once you entered the brilliant reds and oranges of the Autumn Quadrant, and the cold wind simply became cool, instead. As she walked, Vespa stretched, and idly wondered, seriously, what on Earth was taking this detective so darn long? It had been a few hours by this point. Perhaps she'd go impose on Chronoforce's date to see what was happening.

The pathways here were cobbled out of stone, and a number of _torii_ gates hung above the walkway. Apparently, there was a replica of a noteworthy shrine from the area that had long ago burnt down in a lightning strike, so that was an interesting point of reference, maybe. Still, her brain was beginning to slow down and lose its ability to properly digest points of tourism attraction, plus she'd dropped her pamphlet at some point while carrying Necrobat to his home.

Yawning, Vespa idly noticed that the streets on this quadrant were fairly empty. Surprisingly so, really, given the time of day. Was there something she'd idly bumbled into that she—

And then she smelled a _scent_ ,

one that she _most certainly_ should not have smelled here,

but one that she also _recognized_ ,

and as a flash of vivid memory forced its way into her mind, she turned in the direction she'd smelled it.

It was down an alleyway, where she heard what sounded like the Officials talking about something. She smelled it. She smelled something that she certainly should not have smelled here.

After all, _that substance_ didn't exist in the Cyberworld. Or, rather, it shouldn't exist in the Cyberworld.

Vespa's legs slowed down, but she began to wander down the alleyway, her eyes both unfocused and locked on forward. The awnings above had pennants hung to make up for the lack of trees, and a few koi-themed windsocks flew in the breeze.

And it had the _scent_ that Vespa followed.

She took a right turn, and sure enough, there were some Officials. And... holographic police tape over one of the turns off of this alley. She was likely going to be ejected if she was seen,

but she _needed_ to see what she had smelled.

So, her body seeming to constantly resist every single step she took forward, and every bit of the anxiety she'd felt in the past few weeks bubbling up and redoubling again and again, threatening to crush her from within with its biting chill, Vespa stepped forward again, and again, until she was able to turn her head to look down the alley that was closed off by the police tape.

Ah,

she thought.

I see. Of course. It was _that_ , after all.

 **Blood**.

 **Blood** in streaks on the ground, originating from a mess in the back of the alleyway. Whoever this Navi was, they were no longer much of anything. The **blood** said that much. What was left of the body was so covered in it that detail was hard to make out, but Vespa could see what was most important.

The _**bite marks**_.

Limbs cut off at the stump with the rough chewing motion of mad fangs. A torso chewed clean through, ripped of all of the data it could possibly hold. A head streaked with **blood** , which was now more gone than not, ripped off by a mad, freakish maw.

But Vespa saw one thing on that head. What was left of the Navi's final screams.

On August 29, 20XX, in the district of Manzo,

this Navi, whoever they were,

_**was eaten alive, made to bleed in a bloodless world, and murdered** _

and Vespa, who witnessed the aftermath,

fell onto the ground and screamed as loud as she possibly could.


End file.
